Chapter 9 Public sector acounting and auditing in Italy in Isabel Brusca, Eugenio Caperchione, Sandra Cohen and Francesca Manes Rossi (Eds.) Public Sector Accounting and Auditing in Europe . Palgrave 2015

This chapter analyses the public sector accounting and audit systems in the three levels of government in Italy. The harmonization law under trial (mandatory application will start in 2015) is considered as the basis for discussion. The new set of accounting and auditing rules has mainly focused on achieving a harmonization between public entities in Italy and is inspired by the need to keep public expenditure under control, while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole public sector. The rules for public sector accounting combine the traditional budgetary culture with accrual, but the application of international standards seems to be faraway.