To examine the state of managerial accounting use in Croatian public sector, the survey based on the questionnaire made was conducted in 2006 and 2011. The questionnaire was sent to 150 organizations and units in public sector and it consisted of 24 questions. The total of 123 units responded to the questionnaire in 2006, while 88 public sector units and organizations returned the answered questionnaire in 2011. In this paper the authors present empirical results of the research conducted. The results prove that cost management for purposes of cost planning and control in Croatian public sector is still undeveloped and still not sufficiently used in the process of determining budgetary spending. Also, the authors provide possible solutions for better usage of managerial accounting in Croatian public sector.