A STUDY OF THE REQUIRED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING PROGRAM IN PUBLIC COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS HELD BY CESPE

With a view to standardizing the contents offered to future Accounting professionals, the Federal Accounting Council (CFC) elaborated the National Proposal for Undergraduate Accountancy Program Contents. Thus, the curriculum that Higher Education Institutions (HEI) adopt serves as an ally for students’ professional conquests. Stability and favorable job conditions attract many people to the dispute for a public function, with a growing Braz ilian public competitive examination market. According to the National Association for Protection and Support to Public Competitive Examinations (Anpac), between 2003 and 2009, the number of public servants in the executive power with a higher education degree in Brazil increased by 26%. The aim of this study was to confront the CFC’s suggested knowledge with the contents required during tests applied in public competitive examinations for Accountancy professionals. The intent is to identify what Public Accounting knowledge is demanded from candidates for the public career. Through a documentary research, 561 calls from public competitive examinations exclusively for Accountancy professionals were selected for the study sample. They were classified according to the proposed program contents, the test questions by the Center for Selection and Event Promotion (Cespe), between 2000 and 2009. In conclusion, the most frequent required Public Accounting areas are contents related to Public Equity and Budget. The results demonstrate that the CFC’s suggested content is in line with the knowledge required from candidates for public functions.