I view accounting and finance as 2 separate disciplines. Accounting focuses on the monitoring of performance and stewardship of the organization whereas finance is more expansive what with decisions such as raising capital and the choice of financing vehicle, the selection of the method to distribute returns to owners, analysis of risk and return of investments, et cetera. Given that organizations, including government entities, will make suboptimal decisions when they merge these 2 functions together.
ACCOUNTING recording and reporting transactuons with financial consequences to the organization. FINANCE analyzing reports made from accounting records for ourposes of decision making. These two functikns are separate and must stay separate.
I think in the merger of the financial division there will be risks. By combining financial and accounting tasks, you cannot control these activities properly, thereby increasing the risk of fraud in cash disbursements.
If the finance department and the accounting department are not separated, bill payments can be misused without the other party knowing. Why? Because all documents are held by the same person. Fraud that can occur if the two parts are combined is a fictitious billing document, changes in the number of bills, payment sanctions, and so forth.