OBJECTIVES AND ENTITLEMENTS TO RIGHTS IN GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL INFORMATION.

‘Citizens have the right to call all Public Officials to Account for their Management of Affairs’. Article 15 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, Paris, 1789 Adequate published government financial information is an important contribution to the effective and efficient allocation of society's resources and the process of accountability. Many of the studies on the objectives of government financial information, whether based on government-inspired work, on the work of professional institutions or on the studies of academic commentators, contain assertions based on explicit or implicit assumptions about the rights of users. This paper seeks to examine the basis of some of these assertions. It is in three parts. First, the practical and conceptual problems of dealing with this issue are discussed. Second, a variety of approaches from the accounting literature are examined. Third, the historical philosophical background to the issues of rights in relation to financial information are set out. Finally, some conclusions concerning the nature of assertions about rights with regard to government financial statements will be given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]