Management Public Accounting: An Analysis of Cost Information in the Light of Public Managers’ Perception

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the usefulness of cost information in the Brazilian federal government, through observation and empirical analysis of the perception of public managers, who are the main users of this information. The data collected from managers of different government entities were treated using the Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA) methodology, in order to highlight the interviewees’ perception of the purposes, conditions, and mechanisms of access to information. The results showed broad recognition by managers about the usefulness of information, triggering a discussion that puts forward that the vast standardization, the search for improvements in accounting standards, and technological advances are not enough for innovative cost management practices to be successful in public organizations. These reflections indicate the need for alignment between information generated by the cost system and its users, that is, between cost accountants and cost managers, so that the institutionalization of the system does not become a mere formalism of the public sector bureaucracy.