TÉKHNE - Review of Applied Management Studies (2012) 10, 74---86 www.elsevier.pt/tekhne ARTICLE Adequacy of the Local Government financial reporting model in the context of internal decision-making: An exploratory study in the municipality of Braganc ¸a S.P. Nogueira a,* , S.M. Jorge b,c a School of Communication, Administration and Tourism, Polytechnic Institute of Braganc ¸a, Portugal b Centre for Research on Public Policy and Administration, NEAPP --- University of Minho, Portugal c Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal Received 6 August 2011; accepted 25 June 2012 Available online 1 February 2013 KEYWORDS Local Government financial reporting; Decision-making; Internal control; Information opportunity Abstract This paper addresses the adequacy of the Local Government financial reporting model for internal decision-making by developing an exploratory empirical study that evaluates internal users’ satisfaction concerning the reporting model within the municipality of Braganc ¸a. It additionally examines to what extent internal control and financial reporting information opportunity are important for municipalities’ internal decision-making. In Portugal important developments have recently emerged in public sector accounting systems in the context of inter- nal decision-making and control, hence calling for further studying Local Government current financial reporting model in this context. From an experimental questionnaire applied to decision-makers of Braganc ¸a municipality in 2010, main findings show that the actual reporting model is not the most appropriate in providing information for internal decision-making in that municipality. Moreover, both internal control and opportunity of the financial reporting information seem to have significant importance in the context of internal decision-making. © 2011 Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA). Published by Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The reforms in public sector accounting systems, as a con- sequence of New Public Management (NPM) initiatives, led to the preparation and presentation of a new financial * Corresponding author. E-mail address: sonia@ipb.pt (S.P. Nogueira). reporting model. The accounting systems in public sector accounting in general, and in the Local Government in par- ticular, have become more informative (as in the case of Portugal). The present concern is to provide more and bet- ter information, and to try to satisfy users’ needs through the dissemination of useful and opportune information that would enable them to assess and make decisions in a more rational and logical way. The new developments in public sector management and accounting, occurred internationally, have also been 1645-9911/$ – see front matter © 2011 Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA). Published by Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tekhne.2012.06.001