Review of Accounting Developments during 1945-2016 in Kosovo and Challenges for the Future

If we want to go back to history of accounting, we have to consider the socio-economic arrangements that Kosovo has undergone. Without pretending to make subjective conclusions on any socioeconomic system in this paper we have tried to consider the characteristics of accounting through different time periods in Kosovo. By separating the time periods, we pretend to evaluate and analyze the role of accounting. The first period includes the role of accounting up until 1990, the second period includes the role of accounting from 1990 until 1999, and the third period includes the role of accounting from 1999 until 2016. The research paper concludes that the trend of fair presentation of financial statements in a transparent and legal manner is growing even though there is a negative climate in relation to this trend. The main problem is lack of education in the financial sector in terms of reporting income and assets owing to a social economic system that did not promote awareness on good governance in the past. In that regard, the publically owned entities (POEs) demonstrate lack of financial transparency and accountability of not reporting their financial position and performance. Concerning the state of accounting we found a detrimental situation in the sense that the financial reporting was not done in regular basis. This was more emphasized in the transitory time period after the war from 1999 until 2009. The same issues with lack of transparency in POEs were prevalent also in the business or corporate community. POEs, however, were more sensitive for having endured the privatization process.