Inter‐Organizational Cooperation Challenging Hierarchical Accountability: The Dominated Actors in a Municipal Joint Venture

New public management offers a number of solutions to the kinds of problems that public sector organizations experience. In taking an accountability perspective, this paper elaborates on how two of these – strict responsibility for performance, and inter‐organizational cooperation – may conflict. The setting for this study is a joint venture with a dominant municipality and six dominated municipalities as owners. The article examines how horizontal accountability processes may influence the dominated owners’ hierarchical accountability. The ability to account hierarchically for the quality of service within budgetary parameters is problematized, when dominated owners may dismantle their ability to demand horizontal accountability.     

Examining the process of performance measurement system design and implementation in two Italian public service organizations

In the last two decades, the adoption of new public management (NPM) practices in the public sector has increased as public sector organizations seek to improve efficiency, effectiveness and public accountability. We present case study findings of a NPM initiative to implement balanced scorecard (BSC) performance measurement systems in two Italian public sector organizations. This study considers the question of whether the BSC development process can be effectively translated into the public sector context. Our findings highlight the importance of aligning the development of performance management systems with a greater understanding of the internal and external environment of public sector organizations. Our results further emphasize the significant role of emergent stakeholders and management culture for the success of NPM performance management initiatives.     

Together we measure: Improving public service outcomes via the co-production of performance measurement

Not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) aim to deliver public services and achieve outcomes for their beneficiaries. However, little attention has been given to how NFP professionals engage with beneficiaries to develop the performance measures that inform service improvement and accountability. Our findings illustrate how a co-production approach to performance measurement can enhance the meaningfulness of outcome measures, hence supporting service improvement and facilitating ‘collaborations for accountability’ between NFPs and their beneficiaries.     

Accountability for performance in English and Scottish fire and rescue services from 2010 to 2016

ABSTRACT

Using evidence from English and Scottish fire and rescue services from 2010 to 2016, this paper shows how divergent performance management regimes can affect public accountability. Performance management regimes enable agencies and the public to hold public sector organizations accountable by facilitating evaluation of their accomplishments. However, local as opposed to central, control over performance management can have quite different implications for public accountability.     

国家审计服务国家治理的理论分析与实现路径探讨——基于受托经济责任观的视角

国家治理是当今世界的重要议题。建立科学合理的治理结构和运用适当的治理机制以保证和促进国家治理目标的实现,已成为公共受托经济责任的重要内容。作为国家治理的重要组成部分,国家审计理应充分发挥审计功能,服务国家治理。本文基于受托经济责任观,在深入分析受托经济责任与国家审计以及受托经济责任与国家治理相互关系的基础上,从构建全新的公共受托经济责任报告体系,创新国家/政府审计对象载体;建立健全绩效管理制度、全面推进政府绩效审计;推进责任政府建立,进一步深化经济责任审计;构建并实施治理导向审计模式以及权力导向审计模式五个方面深入探讨了国家审计服务国家治理的实现路径。     

How can the public trust charities? The role of performance accountability reporting

Charities rely on public trust to exist. However, that trust has diminished, with a perceived lack of accountability seen as a key reason. This study draws on case studies of two New Zealand charities to examine their performance accountability reporting practices and potential implications for public trust. The findings surface the day‐to‐day agency of charity actors in shifting performance accountability practices towards modes of disclosure that are relevant and accessible to the public. This paper contributes to the literature by extending understandings of how charities produce accountability information that can enhance public trust and, thus, support their mission achievement.     

Editorial

This article analyses the ways that Spanish public water companies communicate sustainability information to their stakeholders and explores whether distinctive and more progressive accountability is possible in the public sector in comparison with private sector organizations. Two distinct activities are identified in sustainable accountability: public organizations are engaged in informal as well as formal reporting activity, and their reporting seems to be coupled with real organizational strategies and operational activities.     

New development: Breaking out or hanging on? Internal audit in government

Public audit is in transition. On the one hand, professional organizations claim it is time ‘to break out’ and develop new roles for auditors that ‘add more value’. On the other hand, critics are concerned about public sector accountability deficits necessitating more control and urging auditors to hold on to their traditional role. This article discusses tensions and relevance between these positions and their implications for auditing in government. The article will help policy-makers in their strategic decision-making on the role and focus of internal audit in government.     

The use of performance measurement systems in the public sector: Effects on performance

We study the use of performance measurement systems in the public sector. We hypothesize that the way in which these systems are being used affects organizational performance, and that these performance effects depend on contractibility. Contractibility encompasses clarity of goals, the ability to select undistorted performance metrics, and the degree to which managers know and control the transformation process. We expect that public sector organizations that use their performance measurement systems in ways that match the characteristics of their activities outperform those that fail to achieve such fit. We test our hypotheses using survey data from 101 public sector organizations. Our findings indicate that contractibility moderates the relationship between the incentive-oriented use of the performance measurement system and performance. Using the performance measurement system for incentive purposes negatively influences organizational performance, but this effect is less severe when contractibility is high. We also find that an exploratory use of the performance measurement system tends to enhance performance; this positive effect is independent of the level of contractibility. The effectiveness of the introduction of performance measurement systems in public sector organizations thus depends both on contractibility and on how the system is being used by managers. These findings have important implications, both for practice and for public policy.     

The Public Accountability Value of a Triple Bottom Line Approach to Performance Reporting in the Water Sector

Global water resources are subject to increasing supply constraints. We respond by exploring how novel public sector performance reporting can service public accountability. Here our focus is an exploration of the drivers and utility of a unique ‘sustainability’‐focused, publicly disclosed, performance reporting initiative undertaken by a water agency in Australia. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a range of individuals from 2013 to 2014. A disclosure index was also constructed to assess the quality of the disclosures. While the key purpose of the reports was to provide managerial accountability with intra‐governmental stakeholders, they were also drawn on to serve a secondary public accountability purpose with external stakeholders. We argue that the prioritisation of internal stakeholders could threaten utility for public accountability purposes. However, in this case, the reports were also found to be largely relevant to the general public. The study demonstrates that reporting developed for managerial accountability purposes can be designed and targeted also to contribute usefully to ancillary public accountability objectives. Our engagement with the public sector to explore the role and effectiveness of novel reporting strategies in support of sustainability and accountability objectives is topical, and contributes to understanding potential solutions in other contexts.     

高校领导社会责任审计研究

公共资源的所有权和控制权分离导致了公共受托责任产生,高校受托责任建立在公众与高校领导干部的委托代理关系上,高校领导应当从公众利益出发,将公众托付的财产合理配置到高校的服务社会功能中去。然而目前对领导干部受托责任开展的以财务绩效为核心的经济责任审计,并未体现公共受托责任的全部内容。结合高校的社会属性,本文延伸了高校领导经济责任审计的内涵——社会责任审计,基于公共受托责任理论提出了以功能耦合为核心的社会责任审计目标——高等教育服务社会目标和高校科研服务社会目标;以目标为导向从制度绩效层面来审计领导干部在社会责任履行方面的效率,即高校责任人对所管辖的公共资源有关的教育服务社会和科研服务社会的内部控制制度的决策效率和执行效率负责。     

Accountability,maps and inter-generational equity: evaluating the Nigerian oil spill monitor

The Oil Spill Monitor (OSM) is an innovative public sector accounting system intended to improve the regulation of oil pollution in the Niger Delta through greater transparency and stakeholders’ engagement. The Nigerian OSM, an online accounting and geographic information system, was set up by non-governmental organizations before becoming part of the regulator’s accountability system. Problems with data quality, regulatory enforcement and remediating practices meant that improved accountability and stakeholder engagement were necessary but not sufficient in this case.     

Autonomy,responsibility and accountability in the Italian school system

The attention on education and the management of the schools represent important elements of the overall public sector management reforms in many OECD countries. The Italian school system has been characterised, in the last decade, by a process of granting schools a degree of autonomy in terms of educational, managerial and financial functions. Autonomy goes hand by hand with responsibility and accountability systems of schools. This paper delivers a critical analysis of the accountability system designed intentionally or not by the reform. The reform is based on the assumption that more local managed schools will improve the overall performance, through more autonomy, responsibility and accountability. In doing so, the concept of accountability web and the role of cultural traits in developing forms of accountability are used in order to analyse the context of three case studies. The findings suggest that the reform created a dual-based accountability on schools causing higher level of stress in the organisation, and a misalignment on the accountability web between school manager and teachers.     

The impact of an independent inspectorate on penal governance,performance and accountability: Pressure points and conflict “in the pursuit of an ideal of perfection”

This paper examines the impact of an independent Inspectorate on the enactment, of and accountability for, penal reform in the Australian State of Western Australia. Intended to improve system wide custodial outcomes through the introduction of a privately managed operator acting as standard bearer and innovator, the reform agenda was predicated on an overhaul of governance, performance, systems and reporting practices in the sponsoring department and the state's public prison network. Insights from three credos of imprisonment, theorizations of ‘hierarchical’ and ‘intelligent’ governance and accountability, the interplay of values in changing practice, and the ways in which inspectors establish particular inspection regimes, frame analysis of reform implementation and the inspection regime in action over a ten year period. Using archival material, this research examines how the Inspectorate, in making things auditable, altered perceptions and organizational realities of a network of actors. It is contended that the governance and accountability tensions inherent in managerialism, exemplified in its reliance on ‘neutral’ accounting technologies to incentivise, manage and monitor custodial outcomes, privilege instrumental hierarchical governance and accountability regimes that ignore the rehabilitative aspects of imprisonment. Further, conflicting publicly espoused and privately held values play vital roles in moulding performance in a penal setting, and are fundamental to changing outcomes in networks. The Inspectorate's public values and intelligent accountability regime resonate with the Department's policy objectives and public values, but are shown to have been initially inconsistent with network actors’ hidden private values. The research concludes that the appointment of an independent Inspectorate has facilitated the accountability of those responsible for prison quality and positively influenced the treatment of prisoners. A secondary concern is investigating conflicting propositions about the relative governance, performance and accountability of privately and publicly operated prisons.     

Accounting for the Public Sector at a Time of Crisis

This Special Issue is based on papers initially presented at the ‘Accounting for the Public Sector at a Time of Crisis’ Conference at the Centre for Not-for-profit and Public-sector Research, Queen's University Belfast, UK in 2018. The public sector consists of organizations that are owned and operated by government; organizations that exist to provide goods and services for a country's citizens. What is particularly distinctive about such organizations, and what makes them different from businesses, is that they are (or, at least perhaps, should be) not-for-profit. In addition, they frequently have wide social and cultural goals that are central to what they do. They are pervasive in most societies. Yet, it is argued, they face crisis on a number of fronts: in terms of the influence of potentially inappropriate, business-like new public management ideas related to performance management and the embracing of related accounting and budgeting approaches; and in terms of the impact of austerity, following the Great Recession in 2008. In such a context it is suggested that public sector governance, accounting, and accountability systems are heavily involved. The papers included in this Special Issue present an opportunity to reflect on aspects of this crisis in terms of how it connects with accounting systems and accounting changes. Key arguments of these papers, and overarching themes of this Special Issue, are explored in this editorial.     

Public mandates, market monitoring, and nonprofit financial disclosures

Public officials have recently sought increased regulation of financial disclosures from not-for-profit organizations as a means of improving accountability with the public. One objective of this study is to examine whether not-for-profit entities already subject to audit requirements submit financial reports in compliance with GAAP. Further, since the majority of not-for-profit organizations are not subject to public audit mandates, this study also ascertains whether other market actors such as donors monitor and demand accrual-based financial information. The empirical analyses indicate that not-for-profit organizations subject to public audit mandates are largely in compliance with GAAP, although a significant minority of organizations subject to state requirements is not; further analyses suggest that external oversight significantly influence the use of accrual reporting. Models are also tested on a subsample of not-for-profits that switched from cash to accrual reporting, with the results suggesting that increasing public and market oversight have a significant effect on the decision to switch methods. The overall results suggest that public and market actors demand accrual-based financial reporting from not-for-profit organizations.     

Politicizing the expertise of the accounting industry in the realm of corporate social responsibility

The accounting industry plays an important role in the production and implementation of accountability mechanisms surrounding corporate social responsibility practices. Operating as both politicians and implementers of knowledge (Gendron, Cooper, & Townley, 2007), the expert activities of accountants are never purely technical. This paper focuses on the mediating role of accounting firms and professional bodies in aligning the socially responsible practices of organizations with the rational morality of the market. I show that the construction of the market as a moral marker of socially responsible action is the result of a major effort of rationalization aimed at justifying the emergence of a social and moral conscience in business, not in the name of subjective feelings or human values, but in the name of an economic and depoliticized logic of profitability. Drawing on the political analysis of Latour (2004) [Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy] and his metaphor of the ‘modern constitution’, I view the economicization of corporate social responsibility as symptomatic of the power imbalance between the world of humans and the world of objects governing the political structure of contemporary society and weakening democratic activity.     

An International Comparison of Materiality Guidance for Governments, Public Services and Charities

The annual report is promoted and regarded as the primary medium of accountability for government agencies. In Australia, anecdotal evidence suggests the quality of annual reports is variable. However, there is scant empirical evidence on the quality of reports. The aim of this research is to gauge the quality of annual reporting by local governments in Queensland, and to investigate the factors that may contribute to that level of quality. The results of the study indicate that although the quality of reporting by local governments has improved over time, councils generally do not report information on aspects of corporate governance, remuneration of executive staff, personnel, occupational health and safety, equal opportunity policies, and performance information. In addition, the results indicate there is a correlation between the size of the local government and the quality of reporting but the quality of disclosures is not correlated with the timeliness of reports. The study will be of interest to the accounting profession, public sector regulators who are responsible for the integrity of the accountability mechanisms and public sector accounting practitioners. It will form the basis for future longitudinal research, which will map changes in the quality of local government annual reporting.     

New development: The unknown world of transnational organizations in Europe—challenges for accountability

ABSTRACT

Mostly unknown to the general public, a fragmented landscape of transnational organizations has been developing in Europe. These organizations work across borders, but not entirely in the EU, and they generally have some basis in European law or policies. An inventory by the authors suggests there are at least 370 transnational organizations in Europe. Transnational organizations challenge basic notions of accountability: it is often very difficult to understand what the organization is doing, to whom it is accountable or even where it is located. This is not to say that accountability is necessarily a problem but much more research and insight is definitely required.     

New development: Alternative reporting formats: a panacea for accountability dilemmas?

ABSTRACT

The need for accountability has given rise to new formats of reporting for public sector organizations. This article discusses the relative strengths and weaknesses of the main formats and concludes with a proposal for the adoption of an ‘Integrated Popular Report’ (IPR) to connect public sector organizations with ordinary people and encourage democratic participation in decision-making.