Identifying Users of Financial Reports of Iranian Municipalities, their Information Needs and their Purposes of Using Financial Reports Print

The purpose of this research is to identify users of the financial reports of Iranian municipalities، the information needs and the objectives which the financial reports are used. In order to conduct this study، a questionnaire was distributed to three groups; the first group includes financial administrative assistants، financial managers، chief accountants، income managers and audit managers working at municipalities of cities with a population of 500000 or more. The second group includes the members of council; and the last group includes the citizens، chosen from M. A and PhD students of accounting and the members of scientific committees of the same field in 5 universities. The results of 234 questionnaires were analyzed by means of appropriate statistical tests. The results show that the most usage of financial reports of municipalities belongs to the members of council، the senior managers of municipalities، analyzers and counselors and finally، the Minister of Interior. So these groups are in need of information for evaluating how efficient the activities of municipalities have been. Furthermore، the results show that these groups use the reports mostly for the purpose of evaluating the financial and operational accountability of the activities of municipalities.