Perverse Audit Culture and Accountability of the Modern Public University

The audit culture which has developed in public universities has led to counter‐productive outcomes. Managerial oversight of academic work has reached a critical tipping point. Extensive auditing of research output by means of performance management assessment regimes motivated by a New Public Management mentality has damaged individual scholarship and threatened academic freedom. Such assessment regimes are perverse and conducive to the development of psychotic tendencies by universities. It is important to understand the effects of a perverse audit culture when re‐thinking and reforming approaches to university performance management. We suggest ways for public universities to acknowledge the need for accountability while remaining true to core academic purposes.     

The comparative effect of process and outcome accountability in enhancing professional scepticism

Responding to concerns about insufficient professional scepticism in audits (e.g. PCAOB, 2011 , 2012 ; ASIC, 2012 ), we investigate the effect of process and outcome accountability in enhancing the level of professional scepticism and the differences in effects across audit experience levels. In our experiment, we manipulate the type of accountability (outcome versus process) for both novice auditors and audit seniors. We examine the effect on four measures of professional scepticism and find that auditors show greater levels of professional scepticism when they are expected to justify their judgment process, rather than their final judgments. Our results also show that the professional scepticism of novice auditors improves to a greater extent than that of more experienced auditors (audit seniors) under process accountability.     

Contemporary University Strategising: The Financial Imperative

This paper examines the financially focused strategies now evident amongst institutions competing for space in the global higher education system. In their search for increasing financial self‐sufficiency, universities and other higher education providers are examined for their primary competitive strategies. The study provides comprehensive evidence of their cost and operating efficiency strategies, facilitated by increasingly pervasive financial performance accountability systems. The primary operational strategies of teaching and research are found to have been transmogrified into strategies of customised education and research that is primarily focused upon and measured in terms of its funds generation. These trends contribute to complex performance management and accountability challenges as universities’ senior managers balance their internal financial ambitions with the expectations of external stakeholders, while simultaneously projecting sanitised imagery through corporate public relations strategies.     

环境机会主义、问责需求和环境审计

通过分析环境机会主义行为的产生和控制,认为环境机会主义行为的存在和污染容忍度的下降产生了环境问责需要,问责需求产生环境审计。收集环境投资、水环境治理和能源消耗数据,分析其与相关环境审计结果公告之间的关系,发现环境保护的投资问责驱动环境部门的预算执行审计,水环境污染及治理问责驱动水环境审计,节能减排的问责需求驱动节能减排审计,验证了环境审计由环境问责需求产生和变迁的理论构想。     

会计与审计：理论渊源与发展路径

会计与审计总是如影相随,20世纪50年代管理会计兴起的同时,管理审计也开始萌芽。现在看来,会计与审计发展的根本动因是受托责任,两者的终极目标是价值增值,财务会计和管理会计的融合是大势所趋,最终走向以价值链会计为核心的“泛会计”;财务审计和管理审计同样走向融合,最终走向以风险和治理为导向的增值审计。     

预算调整制度的演进与政府良治

预算处于政府治理结构的核心位置,预算制度演进的过程映射了中国政府治理的发展过程,同样地,预算制度存在的问题也反映了政府治理存在的问题。以政府良治的主要内容：受托责任、透明度、参与性和预期性为分析框架,阐述预算调整制度演进过程中存在的问题以及与政府良治要求的差距,探索面向政府良治的预算调整制度改革思路。本文尝试用委托代理理论解释预算调整制度与政府良治之间的关系,并向研究政府治理的专家请教。     

我国环境执法不力的原因及对策

环境执法不力是当前污染排放居高不下的一个重要原因,环境执法不力既有主观原因,也有客观原因。应从5个方面改变环境执法不力：树立科学的发展观和正确的政绩观,落实环境目标责任制和责任追究制,加速环境管理体制改革,加强环境保护的刑事立法,对环境执法人员实行连带责任。