Accounting policies of public hospitals in the context of Covid-19 in Cameroon

Abstract

The objective of this article is to question the existence and relevance of accounting policies in public hospitals in a health crisis situation. The political-contractual theory allows us to lay the groundwork for an explanatory model of accounting policies. However, the field of study envisaged leads us to adopt a qualitative approach. To this end, a semi-directive interview guide is administered to seven managers and accountants of public hospitals. The resulting data is used using the so-called synthetic analysis technique. We come up with disjunctive tables that lead to the quantification of collected data. At the end of the research, it appears, contrary to the literature, that accounting policies are choices made by the producers of accounting information for public hospitals. This is particularly the case in 1st category hospitals. In the end, a categorization of accounting policies into two groups in public hospitals can be made: active accounting policies for 1st category hospitals and passive accounting policies for the other categories. The main limit of this article lies in the inability to conduct a study on a larger field of hospitals, given the geographical distance of most and the lack of computer literacy for the most isolated centers.

Key words: Accounting choices, Accounting harmonisation, Accounting commitment

JEL Classification: M41, H50

Paper type: Empirical research