Assessment of the Quality of Financial Statements of Government-Owned Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Published in: Acta Economica Vol. 22; no. 40; pp. 145 - 160
• Main Author: Pobrić, Almira
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Economics, University of Banja Luka 02.07.2024; Економски факултет Универзитета у Бањој Луци; University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Economics
• Subjects: Accounting - Business Administration; audit report; Corruption - Transparency - Anti-Corruption; government-owned enterprises; National Economy; quality of financial statements; supreme audit institution; violation of provisions of IAS and IFRS; audit report; violation of provisions of IAS and IFRS; supreme audit institution; governmentowned enterprises; quality of financial statements
• ISSN: 1512-858X; 2232-738X
• DOI: 10.7251/ACE2440145P

The aim of this paper is to assess the quality of financial statements of government-owned enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the information contained in the audit reports of the supreme audit institutions. The research was conducted on a sample of 135 audit reports related to the reporting periods from 2018 to 2022. The method of content analysis was used to collect data. The results of the research show that in over 80% of cases the auditors gave a modified audit opinion indicating that the quality of the financial statements is not at the satisfactory level. Most of the reasons for modifying the audit opinion relate to noncompliance with the provisions of IAS 1, IFRS 9, IAS 36, IAS 16, IAS 37 and IAS 2. In most cases, irregularities in the financial statements of government-owned enterprises are the result of not performing an assessment of the impairment of fixed and current assets and reducing the value of these assets to a recoverable amount. Because of this, the value of the assets is overestimated, the expenses are underestimated and the financial result is overestimated.