Studies On The Accounting Standards Of Public Institutions Of China

Public institution is a characteristic definition of organization in our country. It refers to the social service organizations in education, science and other activities organized by the state organs or other organizations that hold the state-owned assets for the purpose of social public welfare. Accounting of public institutions refers to the professional accounting that record, reflect and supervise the process and result of the budget executed in public institutions.The accounting standards system of public institutions in our country formed in around1998, which includes the accounting standards of public institutions and the accounting regulation of public institutions. Besides, the accounting regulation of public institutions consist of the accounting regulations of hospitals, universities, primary and secondary schools, scientific institutions surveying and mapping industry and so on.Before the new "Accounting Standards of Public Institutions" issued, it’s the previous "Accounting Standards of Public Institutions"(as the Previous Standards for short) promulgated in1998that specified the accounting activities of public institutions of our country. The Previous Standards once had had important significance to the development of accounting activities of public institutions, and also had played a key role in it. However, with the further development of market economy in our country and the continuous reform of the public finance system, the Previous Standards has seriously lagged behind the new finance management system now. In addition, with the deepening reform of medical and health care, education system and other public institutions in China, the Previous Standards has been unable to adapt to the development of the public institutions under the new situation. So the revision of the accounting standards and regulation of public institutions is imperative.In order to meet the needs of the socialist market economic system and to further standardize accounting, strengthen the accounting management so as to promote social institutions a healthy and orderly development, the new "Accounting Standards of Public Institutions (as the New Standards for short) revised and passed by the ministry of finance in our country released on make No.72on December5,2012and put into force on January1,2013. The New Standards sets off a wave of deepening the reform in accounting of public institutions in our country.The implementation of the New Standards further promotes the internal consistency of accounting standards, improves the reliability of accounting information, and provides accounting basis for the problems that have not yet been standardized by accounting standards but emerge in accounting practice. It can conform to international practices better and lay a foundation for the establishment of the government accounting standards in our country in the future. Also, it marks the preliminary establishment of the conceptual basis and framework controlling the accounting system of public institutions in our country. However, there are still some shortcomings of the New Standards. There is still space for improvement in the aspects such as defining the scope of application, business entity, accounting basis, and the nature of financial report information disclosure and so on.The article opens up the research based on the background mentioned above. Based on summarizing the research achievements of reform of accounting about government and non-profit organizations, it combines with China’s national conditions, analyzes the necessity of the reform of the accounting standards of public institutions on the purpose of it. The article contrasts the previous and new standards in details on around of the accounting information quality characteristics, accounting objectives, accounting basic assumption, accounting elements, measurement and reporting, etc. to find changes and improvements of the new standards. Also, it studies on the insufficiency of the new standards at the same time. It points out the difficulties that may encounter in the process of implementation, and tries to predict the direction of future development in order to make contributions to the accounting standards system of public institutions and as to the improvement of the whole system of accounting standards.