Governmental Accounting in Rwanda : a case study with focus on the financial statements

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the consolidated financial statements of the government of Rwanda for the year ended 31 December 2008. Two types of accounting are discussed namely, money accounts and accrual (profit) accounts. The aim is to discuss which accounting model is used to prepare the financial statements of Rwanda. We found out that, the accrual accounts (fund accounting) are used in Rwanda to report the money effects of revenues and expenditures. Accordingly, we introduce the cameral accounting as an alternative framework, which allows using the money (cash) accounts to report the money effects of revenues and expenditures. By using the cameral accounts, governmental organisations can achieve their three principal objectives namely, money management, budgetary control and payment control. We believe that the preparation of financial statements using cameral accounts is much easier and flexible, particularly because cameral accounts are using the single-entry bookkeeping method.