A Proposal to Activate the Creditors Account to Organize Debtors and Trust Accounts in Centrally-Funded Government Units: An Applied Study in Salah Al-Din Education Directorate

Abstract

      This research aims to propose activating a creditors account as a mechanism for organizing debtors and trust accounts in the General Directorate of Education of Salah Al-Din for the period (2023-2025), by analyzing financial transaction data recorded through the electronic point-of-sale (POS) system, totaling 20,064 transactions for 2025 valued at approximately 3,757,801,334 Iraqi Dinars, with a comparative analysis for the years (2023-2024). The scientific contribution of the research lies in classifying this volume of transactions into accounting categories (trusts, debtors arising from calculation errors, realized revenue, sovereignty fees, and other amounts under review) based on transaction value, then measuring each category's share of the total using descriptive and ratio-based financial indicators. The research relied on the theoretical framework of receivables and trust accounting in government units, alongside an applied dimension based on data tabulation and statistical analysis. The results indicate that the debtors category arising from calculation errors accounted for the highest share of total value (86.31%) despite its low share by count (5.43%), while unclassified amounts represented 30.17% of transactions, indicating a shortcoming in the current classification, which suggests the necessity of activating this account within the Directorate's accounting manual to organize debtors and trust accounts in the Directorate. This finding was corroborated by a field study using a questionnaire administered to a sample of 31 staff, in which respondents confirmed at a high level (mean 4.13/5, reliability 0.561) the actual need to activate a creditors account.