Local and regional accounting and reporting in Spain: An empirical outlook

During the first half of the nineties, many accounting innovations and reforms have been introduced in Spanish governmental accounting. In this context, the purposes of this paper are, on the one hand, to present the main features of local financial reporting legal requirements, which are very close to the central state accounting regulations, as well as real accountability and quality of reported information. On the other hand, this paper looks for an analysis of the main differences and similarities of accounting regulation among Spanish regional governments, identifying practices and users' expectations, as the result of a survey developed by the authors. Also presented are some proposals concerned with a possible harmonised acounting and reporting common framework, in order to maintain the traditional homogeneity that has characterised the past governmental accounting system in Spain.