The starting point for this Master’s Thesis was the knowledge about National Audit Office’s service called the certification of cost accounting system. There were two targets set for this Thesis. The first target was to find out what kind of service the certification of cost accounting system really is. The second target was to find out how the reforming of the National Land Survey’s organization will affect to the current cost accounting system and how and when that new system can be certified.

This Thesis was conducted as a case - research. The used methods were qualitative, descriptive and normative. The empirical data was gathered by interviewing people from the public sector, especially from the field of government. The interviewed parties were National Land Survey of Finland, National Audit Office, Ernst & Young, Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and State Treasury. In addition a questionnaire was sent to the governments accounting units. The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out the accounting unit’s awareness about the certification service.

The results of this Thesis indicate that VTV’s certification process proceeds like any other certification process. However the basic structure of the certification varies. That is because there are no generally accepted standards drawn for cost accounting. That’s why there cannot be a standard owner either. On the standard owner’s place there are the State Budget Act and the State Budget Decree. The cost accounting of National Land Survey of Finland changes more than expected, because of the reforming of the organization. Because of the organizational change there is no need for cost allocation between different units and responsibility centers. In the future costs are allocated only to products and projects. The right time for the certification is in the year 2014. The preparation work has been done already by documenting the new cost accounting system.