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This chapter describes the audit of local government in Italy. In Italy, as elsewhere, local audit has been affected by the implementation of new public management based reforms. There is an increasing trend towards collaboration and cooperation between the audited authority and the auditor. Audit has begun, as in other jurisdictions to widen its remit, so that it focusses on performance as much as financial and compliance issues. This change in role brings with it opportunities for the auditor to help public sector improvement but also challenges – as new skills are required for the new roles that the auditor takes on and audit independence is complicated by the cooperative nature of modern local government audit.

Electronic transactions play a substantial role in many automated transactions in government organizations. The introduction of e-government is key as among other benefits it will raise the quality and transparency, and reduce the corruption that may occur especially in money. Saudi Arabia is considered one of the G20 countries. These countries seek to maintain the international financial stability, where Saudi Arabia has an economic weight to influence the global economy. Through this chapter, we will understand the various benefits both socially and economically that the government of Saudi Arabia is reaping through the introduction of e-government. It is these impacts that have had a significant influence on the global market regarding economic impacts. To better understand this, we evaluate the various applications that have been included in the e-government to foster these establishments. Among them includes Yesser, Tadawul, Absher and the national contact center. From them, the government is enjoying various benefits that will raise them high the economic scale globally. Also, the author looks at the strategies that have been put in place by that particular government to ensure that e-government is established as planned.

National governments took responsibility for expanding their economies and providing public services during the 1950s and 1960s for many reasons. In North America and Western Europe the strength of central government bureaucracies grew from their crucial roles in mobilizing resources during World War II and, afterward, they took on expanded responsibilities for economic and social reconstruction. Strong central management in industrialized nations offered convenient models for new governments in developing countries. In the post-colonial period, many newly independent governments in Africa and Asia saw local jurisdictions as colonial institutions or as strongholds of ethnic or religious minorities that could be sources of political opposition. Weakening their powers and concentrating resources and authority in the central government was a crucial instrument for nation building.

We enter the 21st century with our societies undergoing a radical transformation amidst an atmosphere of optimism that global economic prosperity and peace will prevail. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness of the important role government and public administration play in facilitating economic and social change together with a growing realization of the shortcomings of that role. The general belief holds that the far-reaching socioeconomic, political, and technological changes currently taking place will render 21st bureaucracies obsolete. Thus, transformation of our public bureaucracies becomes imperative to avoid the stigma of obsolescence. Major administrative reform undertaking must be launched in every country, western or eastern alike, “governance” matters more and more these days.

The public relies upon the government for many areas of their lives such as: obtaining a driver’s license, applying for a job, licensing pets, applying for a business license, paying taxes, buying a home, or even applying for college admission. Starting from humble beginnings the invention of the computer system opened pathways for the community to interact with government agencies. In the early years of the computer and internet the federal government was known for their advances and for being at the forefront of technology. However, the same was not true for state and local governments who found themselves left behind the technological race. Somewhere in the early 2000’s even the federal government found themselves behind the private sector as integration and innovation became stagnate within government agencies. The workforce of these agencies did not change into a highly technical workforce until the costs of technology lowered and access and availability were more widely distributed to conduct business (Moon, 2002). Once technology started to trickle down to state and local governments it began to expand to all avenues of public service. In addition, the processes were streamlined for the public. However, issues such as lack of access, lack of computer skills, lack of government trust, and the risk to safety of personal information still hinder technological use at this level.

The paper aims to examine the state of electronic service delivery in Bangladesh. It reviews the structure and operation of the “e-service” centers at the district, sub-district (upazila), and union levels by taking an inventory and assessing their contributions.

The paper is based on a review of the functions and operations of the service delivery agencies with reference to the claims made by the government. It is based on secondary materials obtained from academic studies, government documents, relevant websites, and media reports.

Electronic delivery of public services in Bangladesh has not been effective as planned. There are issues regarding channels of communication, the competence of public officials, human and financial resources, and political will to support the agencies delivering public services.

The paper examines the arrangements, practices, and problems of delivery of public services in Bangladesh through e-service centers at the local levels to determine the progress and potentials of employing digital technology for addressing problems. It proposes the strategy for public service delivery by using digital technology in the country.

The construction industry is widely recognized as one of the most hazardous sectors in the world. Despite extensive research on safety management, a critical issue remains that insufficient attention is devoted to safety practices in rural areas. Notably, accidents frequently occur during the construction of rural self-built houses (RSH) in China. Safety management tends to be overlooked due to the perceived simplicity of the construction process. Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge that China currently lacks comprehensive laws and regulations governing safety management in RSH construction. This paper aims to analyze the behavior of key stakeholders (including households, workmen, rural village committee and the government) and propose recommendations to mitigate safety risks associated with RSH construction.

This paper applies evolutionary game theory to analyze the symbiotic evolution among households, workmen and rural village committee, in situations with or without government participation. Additionally, numerical simulation is utilized to examine the outcomes of various strategies implemented by the government.

Without government participation, households, workmen, and rural village committee tend to prioritize maximizing apparent benefits, often overlooking the potential safety risks. Numerical simulations reveal that while government involvement can guide these parties towards safer decisions, achieving the desired outcomes necessitates the adoption of reasonable and effective strategies. Thus, the government needs to offer targeted subsidies to these stakeholders.

Considering that during the construction phase, stakeholders are the main administrators accountable for safety management. However, there exists insufficient research examining the impact of stakeholder behavior on RSH construction safety. This study aims to analyze the behavior of stakeholders about how to reduce the safety risks in building RSH. Thus, the authors intend to contribute to knowledge in this area by establishing evolutionary game model. Firstly, this study carried out a theoretical by using tripartite evolutionary game to reveal the reasons for the high safety risk during building RSH. Practically, this research points out the important role of households, workmen and rural village committee in improving safety management in rural areas. Besides, some suggestions are proposed to the government about how to reduce construction safety risks in rural areas.

The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, it aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activities and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) government suppliers involved in government green procurement (GGP). Second, it examines the differences in the impact of COVID-19 between small and medium-sized groups.

The study used a questionnaire survey that was distributed to SMEs listed in the MyHIJAU directory that supply green goods and services to the government. Of the total 394 sample respondents, 126 usable questionnaires were received, representing a usable response rate of 31.98%. Descriptive analysis of mean score, standard deviation and mean score ranking was used to analyse the overall results. A t-test analysis was carried out to examine the differences between the small and medium-sized groups of companies.

The study discovers that the SME government suppliers involved in GGP were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The top ranked impacts are that “the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened health and safety practices among the employees”, “the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced company’s turnover”, “the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the company to implement a cost reduction strategy”, “the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the company’s ability to deliver work, supplies or services to the government” and “the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the company to incur higher production costs for green products or services provided”. However, there is no significant difference between the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the small and medium-sized group of enterprises.

The present study is among the fewer studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular focus on SME government suppliers involved in GGP.