Fund Accounting from the Italian Early Tradition to the US GAAP for Governments

Surprising correspondences emerge from the parallel investigation of fund accounting practices in Italian entities until the late nineteenth century and in the contemporary U.S. public sector. The analysis looks for similarities and differences between the early accounting routines and the GAAP for Governments, attempts to interpret them in light of dissimilar environmental features and wonders if the first could have some explanatory capability on the second. The research is based on a comparative design. Early Italian treatises by Angelo Pietra, Lodovico Flori and mainly Fabio Besta and U.S. public sector accounting standards are examined. The “fund” concept, its use and content are strictly similar; they are founded on information needs for governance and internal control. Contemporary needs for democracy and transparency and opportunities coming from modern ICT tools bring the U.S. case to be accountable to the citizenry.