Financial Accountability & Management最新文献

{"title":"Transparency of local government financial statements: Analyzing citizens’ perceptions","authors":"Ellen Haustein,&nbsp;Peter C. Lorson","doi":"10.1111/faam.12353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12353","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Worldwide, open data initiatives aim at making information publicly available and transparent. Increasingly, local governments (LGs) are publishing financial statements in order to inform citizens, in their function as both service recipients and resource providers, about the LGs’ financial situation. However, it remains questionable as to whether LG financial statements are appropriate mechanisms of public accountability: it is debated, on the one hand, whether citizens are interested in accounting information, and on the other hand, if they are able to understand the information presented in financial statements. This study is the first of its kind applying the think aloud method to analyze citizens’ perceptions of LGs’ financial statements in a sample of 30 German citizens with diverse socio-demographic characteristics. The paper explores citizens’ general interest in accounting information and their ability to extract basic financial information from these statements so that increased transparency can be assumed. This explorative study reveals that although citizens demand transparency and financial information, they find it challenging to understand financial statements. Citizens seem to be overwhelmed by the information and call for delegation of the tasks or simplified reporting formats.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"39 2","pages":"375-393"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12353","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50139051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Public sector audit and the state's responsibility to “leave no-one behind”: The role of integrated democratic accountability","authors":"Carolyn Cordery,&nbsp;Bimal Arora,&nbsp;Melina Manochin","doi":"10.1111/faam.12354","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12354","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Achieving the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) at country and local levels—and ensuring “no one is left behind”—requires that nation states commit to solving complex social and societal challenges through collaborative, democratic means. Technocratic and bureaucratic procedures alone are insufficient. In addition to satisfying international actors, governments must discharge integrated democratic accountability through inclusive stakeholder engagement with and between diverse and locally embedded social actors and institutions. Democratic accountability requires recognizing and preserving social complexity and plurality mediated through public dialogues between actors and institutions. Concurrently, global initiatives like the SDGs offer opportunities for the UN's member states to show their sincerity to international principles and standards while engaging with local practices that promote democratic means of resolution and policy implementation. This research analyzes how public sector audit can potentially support and hold a government accountable for its international pledges to SDGs, including stakeholder engagement. In India, the public sector auditor has proactively undertaken a performance audit on that government's “preparedness to implement SDGs.” This research demonstrates how the government is held accountable for its policies and actions on SDGs, through analyzing the interrelated actions of India's two key democratic institutions—the Supreme Audit Institution and Public Accounts Committee. We make recommendations for improving state accountability for SDGs through national level policies, mechanisms and processes of stakeholder engagement and dialogues. At an international level, we argue for the UN to develop more effective mechanisms to hold governments accountable for policies and progress on their SDG commitments. Such mechanisms could include regular progress and performance audits and monitoring both nationally and internationally. These could contribute to improved leadership and integrated policy-making across layers and levels within a nation state. We also highlight the areas for further research.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"39 2","pages":"304-326"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12354","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50136282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Political colonization of a regulatory organization in a developing country: Implications for public accountability and organizational reform","authors":"Mahmud Al Masum,&nbsp;Lee D. Parker,&nbsp;Prem W. Senarath Yapa","doi":"10.1111/faam.12355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12355","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The aim of this paper is to investigate how politically based trade union power can determine the fate of a regulatory body's organizational reform and undermine public accountability in a purportedly democratic developing country (DC). A large regulatory organization in Bangladesh was examined as a case study to uncover how political actors and power were embedded in a World Bank (WB)-led organizational reform designed to contribute to public accountability and democracy. Interviews and media (newspaper) were utilized to identify the contestation of powers at macro- and micro-levels. The explanation of reform implementation was informed by New Institutional Theory and its derived concept of institutional logics. Finding that political recruitment of the organization's senior executives made it susceptible to the pressures of political agents, the study reveals how politically supported union actions interrupted a WB-led organizational reform that was seeking to secure democracy and public accountability. It finds that the pre-existing institutional arrangements resurfaced over time as the political agents secured more power to restore past practices that adversely impacted public accountability. The lack (absence) of accountability in a so-called democratic regime facilitated political interference with the regulatory governance and reforms that undermined organizational accountability to external stakeholders. The case-study organization's institutional environment, agents, and interests were unique situational conditioners that nonetheless may be relevant to other similar public accountability organizations in DCs. The findings of the paper have important implications for policymakers who design, implement, and evaluate public accountability reforms in DCs.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"39 2","pages":"327-354"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12355","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50136283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Public sector accounting harmonization in the European Union through the lens of the garbage can model","authors":"Sandra Cohen,&nbsp;Francesca Manes Rossi,&nbsp;Isabel Brusca","doi":"10.1111/faam.12348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12348","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The public sector accounting harmonization process that started in the European Union in the aftermath of the financial crisis led the European Commission to launch a project for the development of a set of European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS). This paper analyses the process and the decision-making around development of the EPSAS through the lens of the <i>garbage can model</i> (Cohen, M. D., March, J. G., &amp; Olsen, J. P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. <i>Administrative Science Quarterly</i>, <i>17</i>(1), 1–25). More specifically, by identifying <i>problems</i>, <i>participants</i>, <i>solutions</i>, and <i>choice opportunities</i>, it discusses why the development of the EPSAS is taking so long and why the process does not seem to be progressing as planned. To this end, documents related to the process of EPSAS development are analyzed. The results provide evidence of problematic preferences and fluid participation possibly coupled with flight decisions—three elements of the garbage can model. Postponing decisions can be an option to dampen reluctance. The more the public sector becomes accustomed to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) by adopting IPSAS-like accrual accounting standards while waiting for the completion of the EPSAS, the less resistance there might be to moving to accrual accounting standards. However, at the same time, an imminent change to a new set of EPSAS standards might become less plausible if changes demand extra reform.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"39 3","pages":"471-492"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12348","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50141724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Management control practices in interorganizational initiatives: The case of a public program","authors":"Antonio Davide Barretta,&nbsp;Guido Noto","doi":"10.1111/faam.12349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12349","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the last decades, public management and accounting scholars have focused increasingly on the study of interorganizational initiatives involving multiple public organizations in the pursuit of common goals. This paper is an investigation of management control in a public interorganizational program. It adopts a “management control as a package” approach with the aims of (i) identifying the control mechanisms used in interorganizational initiatives; (ii) exploring the interdependencies between them; and (iii) understanding the contribution of organizational controls in supporting collaborative actions. To address the research objectives, this paper presents the case study of a public initiative. The empirical research combines an interventionist approach with semistructured interviews. As a result, the research highlights that management controls in public interorganizational initiatives could require a package of multiple control mechanisms interdependent; moreover, controls at the inter and intraorganizational level influence each other to guide administrations toward the achievement of common objectives. In particular, in the case analyzed, interorganizational controls seem to support public organizations in overcoming the silo logic that often characterizes public administrations’ structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"39 3","pages":"493-513"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50149636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gender-responsive budgeting for public value creation: Insights from higher education","authors":"Chiara Oppi,&nbsp;Giovanna Galizzi","doi":"10.1111/faam.12352","DOIUrl":"10.1111/faam.12352","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study explores how managers and officials enable public value (PV) creation through accounting practices in higher education institutions (HEIs). Adopting a narrow perspective related to gender accounting, this paper presents a comparative case study of three HEIs based in Italy that have been implementing gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) in the last few years. Interviews are conducted with managers and officials involved in GRB processes. The results are analyzed on the basis of Moore's strategic triangle and the strategic alignment among its dimensions. Scarce integration within HEI strategies and low involvement of internal and external stakeholders in iterative processes for strategy definition are identified. Furthermore, the GRB is a standalone gender accounting practice and has limited capability of assessing gender equality outcomes. These results are among the main factors limiting the capability of HEIs to deliver PV through GRB.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"40 1","pages":"85-104"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138495098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transparency and community trust in village government: Does corruption perception matter?","authors":"Hafiez Sofyani,&nbsp;Rizal Yaya,&nbsp;Zakiah Saleh","doi":"10.1111/faam.12351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12351","url":null,"abstract":"<p>When Indonesian village governments were granted authority, independence, and decentralized budget from the central government through Village Law No. 6 of 2014, most people predicted that it would not promote better village development. Instead, such a policy would increase corruption cases and subsequently persuade people not to trust the village government. It might interfere with the legitimacy of the village government's autonomy. Insufficient institutionalization of good governance in the village was one of the reasons. Hence, this study aims to examine the association between transparency after village governance reform—as one of the good governance principles—and village community trust intervened by corruption perception of villagers. This study employed a survey method and involved 128 village governments in the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia, as the samples. The Partial Least Square technique was used for hypothesis testing. This study discovered that transparency was positively associated with low corruption perception and high village community trust. Moreover, corruption perception from villagers was negatively associated with community trust and had a role as a partial intervening variable.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"39 2","pages":"355-374"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50126830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Whatever happened to New Public Management?","authors":"Irvine Lapsley","doi":"10.1111/faam.12346","DOIUrl":"10.1111/faam.12346","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"38 4","pages":"471-482"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121576846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Performance measurement in the public sector: Mapping 20 years of survey research","authors":"Berend van der Kolk","doi":"10.1111/faam.12345","DOIUrl":"10.1111/faam.12345","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper maps 20 years of survey research on performance measurement (PM) practices in public sector organizations. Cumulative findings from the discipline of accounting enhance the understanding of public sector PM and its antecedents and effects. Four maps are presented that visualize the relationships among key variables from prior research in four empirical settings: government, health, education, and other domains. Furthermore, this review distinguishes between individual-level and organization-level effects of PM, and includes reflections on the appreciation of PM by public sector employees. The findings highlight that PM use and attributes such as fairness, subjectivity, and clarity significantly impact the outcomes yielded by PM systems. This paper contributes by synthesizing prior research on public sector PM and by identifying research gaps, areas of debate, and avenues for future research. In addition, findings from this review have the potential to add nuance to the sometimes-polarized debate on the acclaimed “benefits” and “costs” of PM in the public sector.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"38 4","pages":"703-729"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12345","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116951279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Financial resilience! A comparative study of three lower tier authorities in England","authors":"Hilary Coyle,&nbsp;Laurence Ferry","doi":"10.1111/faam.12344","DOIUrl":"10.1111/faam.12344","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Austerity policies have affected local government for over a decade challenging their financial resilience to cope with further financial shocks. Using a financial resilience framework, this paper examines whether lower tier authorities behave in the same way as their higher tier counterparts when it comes to financial resilience to shocks. From a detailed field study of three lower tier (district) authorities in English local government, it is concluded that they do not have the capacity to ‘<i>Bounce Forwards</i>’. They can only ‘<i>Bounce Back</i>’ in the short term and even that is becoming increasingly difficult.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"38 4","pages":"686-702"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12344","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117081079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}