This paper discusses the reform process of the accounting system in the Cape Verde Central Government since 2001, analysing the factors that motivate the reform. This period was particularly important, considering that it was when accrual-based accounting was firstly introduced in the public sector in the country. The specific goal of this research is to describe the main stimuli of this reform, and to explore their effects.
The study is theoretically framed by the contingency model (Lüder 1994; 2002) and the institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983); it is a qualitative-based research and the data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analysis of several documents and of the legal framework.
It is a pioneering investigation with important contributions to understand public sector accounting reform processes in developing countries, with particular focus on the Cape Verdean context, whose reality has not been much analysed academically.