Perception of Benefits Achieved by IT Management Accounting in the Public Sector

Information technology (IT) is of high relevance in public administrations. Thus, a systematic management and control of its usage is required. IT management accounting is an instrument addressing this issue. However, public IT-managers do not perceive its supposed benefits due to the way in which it is currently implemented. This leads to a low usage of IT management accounting in public administrations. To analyze the gap between its supposed and perceived benefits, we reviewed literature and conducted a case study in a German public administration. Our findings show that out of the various benefits of IT management accounting according to the literature public ITmanagers only focus on transparency and support for decision-making as benefits. The findings contribute to a better understanding of IT management accounting in public administrations and support practitioners by designing IT management accounting according to the potential benefits for departmental and cross-departmental IT-managers.