Management and Accounting Developments in Executive Agencies

The executive agency programme has moved ahead rapidly since its introduction in 1988 and by 1996 over 70% of all civil servants were working under executive agency conditions. This has resulted in a major change in the structure of the civil service and in the management of the activities of central government. The question that then emerges concerns the benefits, if any, that these changes have brought about. This paper reports the results of a survey of a sample of senior managers in executive agencies. The survey attempted to ascertain the extent to which agencification was felt to have led to increases in autonomy and freedom to manage and also to obtain the views of managers on a range of issues including changes in operational effectiveness and quality of service delivery. These, after all, are some of the key measures of the success or otherwise of the agencification programme. The survey also examined changes in specific management accounting practices and a broad overview of the findings is provided in the paper. In general, it seems that the senior managers of executive agencies do feel that agencification has achieved many of the benefits hoped for and that is has brought about changes and improvements in management and management accounting practices.     

A Study of the Use of Targets in the Planning Documents of Executive Agencies

The use of quantitative, often non-financial, targets and performance measures in the plans of both businesses and not-for-profit organisations has recently received increasing attention in the academic literature. In the UK public sector this has been particularly important, given the rise of New Public Management. This has resulted in a shift from issues of policy to issues of management, and the break-up of traditional bureaucratic structures. These changes have been supported by an increasing focus on setting quantitative targets which cover all aspects of an organisation's performance. This paper seeks to examine the possible role of quantitative targets in planning and control in public sector organisations. Furthermore, through an exploratory study of over eighty planning documents from executive agencies, the nature and breadth of targets being used are examined and discussed.     

关于农村信用代办站整顿与规范的思考

农村信用代办站是农信社涉及生存与服务实力的一项关键性制度，它在形式上嫁接了契约型信用和关系型信用，降低了信息费用与交易成本，有利于服务“三农”。但也存在站点布局不合理、管理制度不健全、代办员素质低、监督机制和信息反馈体系缺乏、安全防范不足等制约因素，然而目前尚不具备市场退出条件，应加以整顿与规范：实行不同区域需求基础上的差异代理、转变用人方式、完善内控机制、强化安全装置、创新服务品种、改革监督方式。     

A Study of University Student Union Autonomy Construction

学生会是学生自己的自治组织,是学校联系学生的桥梁,针对当前误将高校学生会定性为校办的学生组织,导致学生会组织选定负责人方式不当、工作自主性差、脱离学生、作风漂浮,引起学生不满,因此,应探究加强学生会自治建设。主要措施有:学生会主要成员的产生由任命制改为自选制;建立健全联系与监督机制;坚持不懈地加强学生会文化建设;创建有利于履行自治权的政策环境。     

公共服务战略管理中的公众参与：原因、机制与意义

公共服务战略管理是战略管理途径在公共服务领域的运用,是制定公共服务战略并实施和评价战略的过程,以此更好地满足公共需求。公众是公共服务最直接的受众,应该把公众纳入公共服务战略管理的研究框架之中。同时,适当的公众参与对公共服务的有效供给及公共服务战略绩效的提高有着十分重要的作用。     

意大利公共养老金制度发展和改革研究

经历了私有属性的养老金制度的前期发展以后,意大利建立了主导性的以职业分割的卑斯麦式的公共养老金体系。待遇和缴费层面上的权利义务不对等,经济人口发展的不利因素以及国内国际的政治金融多重压力促使意大利开始改革公共养老金体系,恢复公共财政的可持续发展。意大利的公共养老金改革不仅建立了待遇和缴费的对应关系,也扩大了养老金的福利融资渠道并鼓励了私有属性的公共体系外养老金制度的发展。另外,发展阶段针对非雇佣关系或自雇业者的公共养老金体系的非政府的管理方式在改革中得到了保留。发展与改革阶段的一系列举措深刻的影响和塑造了意大利公共养老金制度的现有功能和形态,对于正处在发展改革过程中各国的公共养老金制度建设也是重要的启示。     

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.     

Ten years after: The rise and fall of managerial autonomy in Pompeii

In September 1997, an ad hoc law (Law no. 352/1997) gave the archaeological site of Pompeii a new status. Its previous status as a local branch of the Ministry of Culture (the Soprintendenza) was reconfigured as an autonomous entity (Soprintendenza autonoma). In July 2008, the Italian Prime Minister declared a one year state of emergency in Pompeii, appointing a special Commissioner (Commissario straordinario) in order to cope with “the serious critical situation of the archeological area” (OPCM 3692/2008). The aim of the paper is to review the process of change in Pompeii over ten years, observing major institutional transformations and analyzing the evolution of activities and human and financial resources management. Beyond the substantive elements of interest (the mis-management of one of the most important archaeological sites in the world), the paper sheds lights on the role of accountability in the cultural sector and on the distinctive features of Italian public administration, questioning the existence of a path of international convergence in public sector change.     

试论如何转变公共事业管理专业就业劣势

公共事业管理专业1999年开始招收本科学生,至今已经毕业了4届学生,总体看来,其毕业生就业情况并不乐观。本文拟从公共事业管理专业的特点及其毕业生面临问题进行分析,并从就业指导、学生就业观的树立、大学生创业、课程改革等方面提出建议,以期帮助该专业毕业生转变就业劣势。     

建立主权养老基金：另辟机关事业单位养老保险改革之“蹊径”

近期,我国机关事业单位养老保险改革已是大势所趋,却又是难中之难,阻碍重重。南非的公务员养老保险制度向主权养老基金的成功转型的实践及其成熟经验,可以为中国的改革提供有益的借鉴,即建立一只完全积累的、中央集中管理的、缴费确定型的主权养老基金,来取代当前的＂国家保险＂型公务员养老金制度。     

"新公共管理"与完善我国税务机构的内部管理

"新公共管理"给西方税务机构改革带来的变化为我国加强税务机构内部管理提供了经验。借鉴发达和新兴工业化国家改善税务机构的内部管理的经验,完善我国税务机构的内部管理可从组织机构、人力资源管理机制和绩效评估机制三方面着手。     

The Distributional Effects of Indirect Tax Changes in Italy

This paper evaluatesthe distributional and welfare effects of two recent changesof Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise taxes in Italy applying andcomparing two related and complementary methods of analysis:the first based on the distributional characteristics of Feldstein(1972) and recently applied by Newbery (1995); the second basedon the theory of marginal dominance developed by Mayshar andYitzhaki (1996). The paper finds no evidence that the reformshave redistributed purchasing power among households. But themost striking result is that a simpler two-rate VAT structure,set according to the European directives on VAT coordination,could have replaced the present system producing the same revenueand increasing welfare. This last result provides a clear instancein which reducing the number of VAT rates can be welcome evenin the presence of distributional concerns.     

Cost Management in the Public Sector: Legitimation Behaviour and Relevant Decision Making

This paper presents a case study where a cost management project was implemented using action research methodology at two Finnish organizations working in a purchaser–provider relationship. While the study demonstrates the efficiency‐seeking motive behind the implementation of the management accounting tool, subsequent investigation found that tool remained partly unused despite showing its potential relevance for practice through user involvement. However, this does not necessarily signal legitimation‐seeking behaviour. Reasons for not using some parts of the tool point to an overestimation of the functionality and an underestimation of implementation problems during the design process. The case also highlights the relationship between relevance and decision making.     

国内公共管理学科实践教学模式研究现状述评

公共管理学科教育在我国的重新开展只有近三十年的历程,如果说明确提出"公共管理"这一说法,时间则更为短暂。从我国各高校的研究与教学实践来看,实践教学已经成为推动本学科理论与实践发展的重要途径。这种重要推动作用主要体现在两大方面:一是加强理论与实践的结合,二是体现地方与学校的特色。     

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.     

Flypaper Effect and Sluggishness: Evidence from Regional Health Expenditure in Italy

In Italy, public expenditure reduction is achieved through a revision of social security and health care programs. In particular, public health expenditure control has been implemented through a reform that imposes more stringent budget rules to local governments and a considerable reduction in grants-in-aid from the central government. This paper investigates empirically whether the response to this decrease in categorical lump-sum grants from the central to local governments results in an asymmetric response to intergovernmental grants. Hard budget and soft budget constraint hypotheses are estimated by using a sample of cross-sectional and time observations covering the 20 Italian regions over the period 1989–1993. The main finding is the existence of a standard and a super flypaper effect in both models. The introduction of the soft-budget constraint hypothesis results in a stronger effect of grants and a lower response of own resources which shows that local governments prefer to incur some deficit instead of reducing health care expenditure.     

公共事业管理专业实践性教学探索与研究

公共事业管理专业有很强的实践性、综合性与操作性,随着时代的发展,传统的以课堂为中心、以教材为中心、以教师为中心的封闭式的教学模式已无法适应课程特点和社会的需要。因此,要建立以学校、政府和社会互补平台为教学环境的开放式的教学模式,构建公共事业管理专业实践性教学体系。     

Design and Implementation of Return on Capital Employed Performance Indicators Within a Trading Regime: The Case of Executive Agencies

The financial regime under which trading executive agencies operate implies that return on capital employed (ROCE) is used to indicate that revenues meet but do not exceed costs, including the cost of capital; that is, that there is neither cross-subsidisation nor hidden taxation. This paper develops a model for measuring ROCE derived from this objective. It argues that users of ROCE indicators are likely to lack financial sophistication and to want to compare performance between entities, so that indicators should be clear, readily understandable and comparable. The range of measurement and presentation methods used in practice undermines clarity and comparability and some methods are inconsistent with the model. Performance is sometimes characterised as meeting the target when this is problematic. The paper also examines outturn performance and finds some very substantial excess returns, implying hidden taxation.     

Determinants of the Performance of Investment Promotion Agencies: Evidence from a Mix of Emerging Economies

This article argues whether and how investment promotion agencies (IPAs) efficiently influence investment promotion in the cases of the following selected variables: resources (experience, total staff, and overseas staff), service functions (combined promotion service of inward investment and trade, and inward and outward investment), and organizational structure (autonomous status of private/upper ministry-level IPAs). The results reveal a positive relationship between IPA’s performance and longer experience, larger staff, larger overseas IPA staff members, autonomous private agency types, and upper ministry-level IPAs. However, an IPA’s performance was negatively associated with the combined promotional service of inward investment and trade, and inward and outward investment. The results suggest that an IPA’s performance can be enhanced by adjusting the service functions and restructuring the governance and structure in addition to improving the IPA’s resources and the country’s investment climate.     

关于我院公共事业管理专业本科教学课程体系建设的思考

课程体系应该如何设置,才能既不失公共管理学科的基础性规范,又能凸显我们财经学院公共事业管理专业的特色和优势,而且要符合本科层次的教育目标和宗旨,文章针对课程设置和安排进行了探讨。