Abstract:
To study the preparedness and obstacles of government agencies in changing from cash to accrual basis. The study is based on handing out questionnaires. The 44 government agencies of department level or equivalent under prime minister and ministry offices are surveyed. There are two types of questionnaire for each organization, one for accountant and another for administrator. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, proportion test, test of independence and paired-samples test. The studies have shown that. 1. The preparedness in personnel. Accounting staff in government agencies is inadequate, and most of staffs have knowledge of accrual basis only at medium level Anyway, both accountants and administrators agree to change the accounting system. 2. The preparedness in accounting data, documents and database system. They have good preparedness in accounting data, documents, database system and equipments such as computers. Although there are agencies that have collected accounting entry in computational files, most of them still have recorded with classical methods. The studies have also shown that the administrators and staffs rarely use accounting data for evaluating the financial status and operating performance. 3. The problems of accounting amount gathering and opening accrual process. In the accountants' opinion, the main problem is establishment asset's amount, others are classification of accounting entries and cooperation in the organization. For the administrator point of view, the major problems are establishment of asset's amount, classification of accounting entries and lack of good knowledge about accrual basis of accountants. 4. Recording problems of account. The serious problem in accountants points of view is about classification of accounting entries. Some entries are not specified clearly in the manual instruction. There is problem also to understand new documents. On the administrator's view, the major problems are classification, lack of good knowledge about accrual basis of accountants and lack of the understanding in increasing documents and cooperation within organization