Accruals and ‘accounting numbers management’ in UK executive agencies

Public sector reforms have implemented business techniques, including management by results, cost management and accrual accounting, to make public entities more efficient and accountable. As a consequence, ‘accounting numbers management’ has become a way for managers in the public sector to adapt accounting figures to their interests. This study focuses on ‘earnings management’ (manipulation of earnings) in government agencies. The authors provide evidence of earnings management in which agencies try to keep net operating costs to around zero. The authors' findings question the effectiveness of financial targets associated with accrual-based measures.     

Public Sector Accounting Reform at Local Government Level in Indonesia

This paper describes and analyses the challenges encountered in attempting to reform public sector accounting in Indonesia, the main objective of which is to combat corruption and thus help improve governance. Our observations suggest that this reform has been seriously hindered by a lack of staff with adequate accounting skills — a problem exacerbated by the decision to continue to prepare old‐style cash‐based reports alongside the new accrual‐based reports. Our key contribution is to demonstrate the danger of rushing to copy public sector financial management techniques from quite different country contexts, especially when there are significant differences of opinion as to the appropriate design of these reforms among the influential policy‐making agencies.     

Citizen views about public meetings

The current study seeks to demonstrate that a citizen views about public meeting structure and related groups matter in predicting satisfaction with public engagement and willingness to attend future meetings. Public health agencies frequently use public meetings to communicate risk information, but relatively little social science research has examined how potential meeting participants view them. Using survey data (N?=?866) collected in seven US communities where health agencies were investigating possible local cancer clusters and holding public meetings to communicate with local residents, the current study replicates and extends an earlier inquiry related to citizens satisfaction with public meetings used for risk communication. Whereas previous research found that expectations, health agency credibility, and risk perceptions predicted satisfaction with public meetings, the current results did not show a significant relationship between agency credibility, risk perceptions, and satisfaction. Further, the results suggest it may make sense to consider ‘views about public meetings’ as a single measure that includes citizens’ structural expectations for meetings. Finally, the current study finds that views about public officials and views about meetings relate to individuals’ willingness to attend future meetings. Additional variable development and modeling research is suggested.     

A Consulting Giant; a Disgruntled Client: A ‘Failed’ Attempt to Change Management Controls in a Public Sector Organisation

There has been very little research into management consulting interventions in public sector organisations, especially in emerging economies. This paper aims to fill this void by narrating the empirics of a consulting assignment carried out by a large international consulting firm in a Pakistani public sector organisation. The study found that consultants’ recommendations of ‘businesslike’ management controls, such as a modern performance measurement system and a ‘state‐of‐the‐art’ information system, were rejected outright by the client management. Employing a critical realist perspective that focuses on the structural conditions facing both the client and the consultants, and on the strategies adopted by both parties, the study aims to explain the empirics of the case. Through structural and strategic analysis, this paper aims to enhance our understanding of the dynamics of management consulting in public sector organisations, especially in emerging economies.     

Information Uncertainty,Earnings Management,and Long‐run Stock Performance Following Initial Public Offerings

We examine how information uncertainty surrounding IPO (initial public offering) firms influences earnings management and long‐run stock performance. For low‐information‐uncertainty issuers, at‐issue earnings’ management is positively related to subsequent unmanaged earnings and has no relationship to market reaction to earnings announcement and long‐run stock performance following the offering. For high‐information‐uncertainty issuers, however, at‐issue earnings’ management is unrelated to subsequent unmanaged earnings and negatively related to market reaction to earnings announcement and long‐run stock performance following the offer. The evidence suggests that, on average, managers in low‐information‐uncertainty firms tend to engage in earnings’ management for informative purposes, while managers in high‐information‐uncertainty firms engage in earnings’ management for opportunistic purposes.     

Takeover Defences and IPO Firm Value in the Netherlands

The central question of this study involves the relation between the use of takeover defences and IPO firm value. We report that management frequently uses takeover defences before taking the firm public. The use of takeover defences is primarily motivated by managerial entrenchment. IPO investors anticipate potential conflict of interests with management and reduce the price they pay for the IPO shares if takeover defences are adopted. Although managers internalise this cost of takeover defences to the degree they own pre‐IPO stock, they are likely to gain through private control benefits. Non‐management pre‐IPO owners lose. Their shares are worth less, but different from managers, they do not get offsetting private control benefits. We infer that managers use takeover defences to protect private control benefits at non‐management pre‐IPO owners’ expense.     

Complexities of Productivity Policies in the Finnish Public Sector: Knowing How to Do More with Less?

This paper examines public sector productivity policies as complexities between what is ‘known’ in policy principles and what is ‘done’ in everyday policy practice. Such complexities are explored in two productivity policy cases within Finnish local government: municipal amalgamations, and the low‐threshold concept of healthcare service. Utilising quantitative and qualitative data from Finnish local government the paper demonstrates the tensions between productivity policy principles, interpretations for productivity improvement (‘knowing’) and final outcomes for actually applying (‘doing’) productivity policy. The paper argues in favour of a new understanding for the research and practice of public policy and management.     

Changes in the Public Accounts Committee of a Less Developed Democratic Country: A Field Study

This paper complements prior studies on the public accounts committees (PACs) by considering the notions of ‘agency’ and ‘structure’ of institutional theory in tandem in understanding the changes in structures and activities of the PAC of a less‐developed democratic country – Bangladesh. While prior studies examined ‘external’ institutional pressures on the development and operation of the PAC in various settings, the role of internal and external institutional agents in this context has not been their primary focus. Our empirical evidence from a qualitative field study indicates that over the past two decades, Bangladesh's PAC underwent significant changes to its internal governance structures and administrative processes. While these changes were indirectly driven by pressures from international donor agencies, PAC members and the national audit office played a key role as institutional agents in initiating and institutionalising the changes in PAC governance and operation.     

How did enterprise risk management first appear in the Korean public sector?

This research addresses the rise and fall of the Crisis Management Guideline of Public Organizations (CMGPO) from a historical perspective. In the Korean public sector, as a form of enterprise risk management (ERM), CMGPO is not designed to be merely a tool of financial risk management but also to be a policy tool for crisis management. CMGPO emerged within the conflict between integrated crisis management and dispersed crisis management. The purpose of CMGPO is to bureaucratically integrate the crisis management of public organizations with the governmental crisis management system. ERM as a form of self-regulation is entangled with the pre-existing command and control of the Korean government over integrated crisis management. As a result, CMGPO is characterized as ‘enforced self-regulation’ rather than self-regulation; this is a fundamental idea in ERM.     

‘Real without being concrete’: the ontology of public concern and its significance for the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF)

Abstract

Public concern is a pivotal notion in the risk perception, communication and management literature. It is, for example, a central concept with regard to the social amplification of risk, and as a justification for policy attention. Despite its ubiquity, the notion of public concern remains a ‘black box’ presenting a poorly understood state of affairs as a reified matter-of-fact. Paying attention to the deployment and metrics of public concern, and the work it is required to do, will enhance the power of approaches to understanding risk, and policymaking. Thus, the broad purpose of this paper is to unpack the notion of public concern by adopting an ontological yet critical perspective, drawing on a range of literature that considers ontology. We reflect on how publics and public concern have been conceptualised with regard to the dichotomies of individual/social and private/public, given that they imply different levels and dimensions of concern. We draw on empirical work that illuminates the assessment and measurement of public concern and how the public have responded to risk events. Considering public concern through an ontological lens affords a means of drawing renewed critical attention to objects that might otherwise appear finished or ready-made.     

政务微信视角下的政府信任及其提升路径

伴随互联网技术和新媒体的迅猛发展,政务微信已成为政务信息公开透明、多元主体互动参与、公共服务效率改进的新利器。然而,当前政务微信功能定位模糊、运营管理不规范、信息回应不及时等问题影响了政府信任的生成。今后,应明确政务微信的功能定位,改进公共服务效率和效益,改革政务微信管理体制,提升政府信息发布权威性,及时回应公众诉求等,以进一步提升公众对政府的信任度。     

Nuclear licensing in the United States: enhancing public confidence in the regulatory process

A nuclear regulator’s paramount purpose is to utilize its expertise to ensure protection of public safety. But, recent actions by countries, such as Germany, to phase out nuclear power illustrate that public perception of nuclear safety can change swiftly despite a country’s long history of safely operating nuclear power plants. Public trust, acceptance, and involvement in nuclear regulatory decisions, therefore, are critical to a successful nuclear power program. In the United States, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (‘NRC’) has a long-standing practice of conducting its regulatory responsibilities in an open and transparent manner. The NRC, as a regular part of its decision-making process, also reaches out to affected and interested parties and invites their involvement in its regulatory processes. The NRC’s efforts to instill public confidence are an explicit recognition that nuclear safety and security are the public’s business. While the NRC must balance the public’s rights to participate in the licensing process with the applicant’s right to an efficient and timely licensing decision on an application, ultimately the NRC’s decision-making process is more effective and more broadly accepted by the public when it includes participation of a diverse range of interested and affected parties.     

Budget Rules and Flexibility in the Public Sector: Towards a Taxonomy

The practices and norms of public budgeting have often been seen as a brake on the flexibility needed of government organisations. This remains true despite historically significant financial management reforms designed around budgetary devolution. Seeing flexibility as operating along two dimensions – devolution and discretion – this paper revisits the underlying features of traditional public budgeting to develop a taxonomy of six generic ‘budget rules’. By isolating key properties of budget control, the paper uses two of the more prominent rules – annuality and purpose – to illustrate how the rules interact to generate control capacity, as well as the scope for rule variability in promoting increased flexibility.     

增强公共管理专业学生公文写作能力的途径探析

目前,公共管理专业学生的公文写作水平无法满足其专业需求,这一方面是与学生的文字表达欠缺有关,另一方面也与教师在教学中没有紧密结合学生所学专业,没有激发起学生的学习兴趣有关.实际上,公共管理专业的学生是最了解公文在社会管理工作中的作用的,也是最能掌握其恰当的表达方式的.通过总结教学实践,笔者认为,在公文写作教学中,教师应该紧紧围绕公共管理专业的优势,引导学生重视公文在社会管理中工具性的发挥,增强写作的主动性与责任感,通过精讲多练,促进学生公文写作水平的提高.     

事业单位改革和财政政策选择

虽然政府在发展社会事业上负有不可推卸的责任,但公共服务的多层次性和群众需求的多样化特征使得政府无力也不可能成为唯一的公共服务供给者.因此,在事业单位改革的基本思路上,一是要坚持多元化的改革取向,让能走向市场的事业单位进入市场,政府集中财力保障基础性社会事业的发展.二是要动员社会力量举办社会事业,以满足不同层次的公共服务需求.三是要正确看待当前社会事业领域中非营利性组织的地位作用,并健全相应的管理制度.为了取得理想的改革效果,财政必须要从改进拨款方式、加强绩效考评入手,加强对社会事业支出的管理.同时还应完善相关优惠政策,调动民间资本进入社会事业领域的积极性.     

Effect of outsourcing public sector audits on cost‐efficiency

This study compares the cost‐efficiency of ‘in‐house’ and outsourced to private sector audit supplier arrangements to deliver financial audits in the public sector by examining audit cost‐efficiency within the context of the public sector arrangement at one state in Australia (Western Australia). The results for 178 public agencies show that outsourced audits are, in general, more costly than in‐house audits, but this result is conditional on the type and size of public agency. Specifically, outsourced audits are more costly than in‐house audits for small statutory authority audits, whereas for specialist audits (i.e. hospitals) and large and complex statutory authority audits, the in‐house supply is equally efficient as the outsourced service.     

国外公共危机预防审计的实践及借鉴

人类社会的发展不断面临各类公共危机的挑战。面对公共危机造成的重大影响,各国政府开展了公共危机管理,相应地,国家审计机关开展了贯穿于公共危机预防、反应和恢复等各个阶段的公共危机管理审计。我国目前的公共危机管理审计实践重心在于危机发生后的援助款物使用情况的审计和危机恢复阶段的重点工程项目跟踪审计,对危机预防审计缺乏认识。他山之石,可以攻玉。本文选取美国洛杉矶综合性危机预防审计、加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚地区地震预防审计和爱沙尼亚应急准备审计三个审计案例,介绍其公共危机预防审计的实践,从中总结出值得我国借鉴的经验,对我国现阶段开展公共危机预防审计提出相应的建议。     

Occupation,driving experience,and risk and accident perception

The contemporary understanding of public sector risk management entails a broadening of the traditional bureaucratic approach to risk beyond the boundaries of purely financial risks. However, evidence suggests that in reality public sector risk management does not always match the rhetoric. This paper focuses on the apparent inadequacy of any risk framework in the current Prudential Borrowing Framework (PBF) guidance in relation to that which was developed under Public Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Our analysis shows that the PBF and its associated indicators for local authorities adopt a narrow financial approach and fail to account for the full range of potential risks associated with capital projects. The PBF does not provide a framework for local authorities to consider long‐term risk and fails to encourage understanding of the generic nature of risk. The introduction of the PBF appears to represent a retrograde step from PPP/PFI as regards risk and risk management.     

Exploring Comparative Ratings and Constituent Facets of Public Trust in Risk Regulatory Bodies and Related Stakeholder Groups

This paper reports on two comparative ranking tasks performed by a sample of the British citizens (N = 304). The first was designed to compare levels of relative trust vested in a sample of UK risk regulatory bodies and associated stakeholder groups. The second sought to elicit a ranking of a range of previously identified facets of social trust referenced to their desirability as attributes of a government funded risk regulatory body. The ranking tasks were embedded within a broader programme of research focused on “Evaluating public understandings of and trust in the Health and Safety Executive” (Pidgeon et al., 2003). It is argued that deriving rankings of multi‐faceted phenomena using the method of paired comparisons offers a more robust approach to rating social trust entities than the direct ranking techniques used in previous studies in this area. Results are discussed with reference to qualitative findings from the broader programme of work on public trust in HSE (Pidgeon et al., 2003) and the wider literature on public trust in risk regulation.     

Borrowing to Finance Public Investment? The ‘Golden Rule of Public Finance’ Reconsidered in an Endogenous Growth Setting*

In this paper, we look for long‐run and short‐run effects of fiscal deficits on economic growth and welfare in a standard endogenous growth model. We show that, under very general hypotheses, the ‘golden rule of public finance’, which allows a government to run public‐investment‐oriented fiscal deficits, leads to a lower balanced‐growth path in the long run, and eventually in the short run, compared with balanced‐budget rules. Welfare effects are more difficult to assess, and depend on the form of the utility function. Our model shows that debt rules such as the golden rule may improve (if the consumption elasticity of substitution is ‘low’) or weaken (if the consumption elasticity of substitution is ‘high’) intertemporal welfare. Consequently, a balanced‐budget rule does not necessarily dominate debt rules from the point of view of welfare, while it does from the point of view of long‐run economic growth.