Accounting and the Evaluating of Social Programs: A Reply.

Abstract This article presents response from the authors to the criticism of their article on the concept of social accounting, published in the April 1973 issue of the journal "The Accounting Review." The primary purpose of the authors' paper was to clarify the concept of social accounting. The authors agrees that the accounting literature does indeed reflect a misunderstanding of the most feasible role of accountants in the evaluation of the effectiveness of social programs (EESP). Moreover, the literature reflects the fact that accountants have also misunderstood the purposes and objectives of social accounting and thus of EESP. One can only speculate about the extent to which these conceptual misunderstandings have contributed to the ill-conceived suggestions concerning most feasible roles. But a U.S. General Accounting Office report cited simply reinforce the authors' view that accountants have neither the training nor the experience necessary to conduct nonfinancial program evaluation or to steer the social accounting bandwagon or to evaluate the effectiveness of the management and operation of social programs.