Accounting and the Evaluation of Social Programs: A Comment.
This article presents comments on an article written by M.E. Francis, published in the April 1973 issue of the journal "The Accounting Review," which contends that accountants are ill-equipped to contribute in a constructive way either to improve the methods of assessing the state of society and social programs or to the application of evaluative procedures in the allocation of resources to the efforts to improve social well-being. The article provides a useful service to the profession by cautioning accountants against jumping upon the social accounting bandwagon without knowing its ultimate destination or their own ability to steer it in an appropriate direction. The argument of Francis against a potential role for accountants is three-fold: accountants lack the expertise to attest to sampling methods and statistical series derived from samples; accountants do not have the knowledge or experience to determine the relevant statistical information to be collected, analyzed, and reported; and accountants lack the statistical training to improve the accuracy of economic data. The accountant, as a member of a team which is likely to include specialists from other disciplines, independently appraises program results and reports his findings to the policy makers. Contrary to the implications of Francis, accountants seldom, if ever, work with numbers that are finitely accurate.
- DOI
- 10.2308/tar-4492077
- Volume
- 49 (4)
- Pages
- 822-825
- Language
- en
- Export
- BibTeX
- Sources
- openalex crossref