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SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING IN ESTONIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?
Abstract
Background In the last decade, many national governments have promoted sustainability reporting by adopting laws and regulations that specifically mandate such forms of disclosure. This paper examines how Estonian legal acts support sustainability reporting within local governments, which have been the cornerstones of the existence of the modern Estonian state and nation – as our famous scientist and politician Juri Uluots maintained in 1933 [1]. Methods In this case study, content analysis was used as a qualitative research method. The content model is based on Talcott Parsons' AGIL paradigm, which determines four imperatives for the continuity of social systems: A – adaptation to the environment; G – goal attainment; I – integration; and L – latent pattern maintenance or latency [2]. The fourth imperative means that each social system must be characterized by an institutionalized value system involving common moral and other values [3]. Results Our results indicate that since Estonia regained its independence i.e. during the last 22 years the sustainability orientation of the legal acts regulating accounting and reporting in Estonian local governments has increased step by step. There have been positive results in adaptation (A) and goals (G), but the levels of integration (I) and latency (L) remain low. Conclusions Although the scope of management accounting has significantly broadened, now including financial and non-financial measures alike [4], the accounting and reporting in the Estonian public sector (including local governments) based on legal acts concentrates on financial measures alone. The results of this case study confirm that there is a great need for the motivation of officials (L) and the integration of sustainability indicators in public sector accounting (I).
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