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How analysts make recommendations to the budget director and governor depends partly on the nature of the state budget office (SBO). This paper contrasts the development of a budget recommendation in an office with a strong policy orientation with recommendations fashioned in an office with a strong control orientation. One important difference is that control oriented analysts focus almost exclusively on the technical and legal facets of budget problems, whereas their policy oriented counterparts spend considerable time on the social, legal, and political (SLP) facets. The SLP framework enables the policyoriented analysts to apply economic rationality to evaluate requests and make recommendations that are consonant with the governor’s policy agenda.

Many studies of the budgetary process focus on the national government while ignoring the state budgetary process and state budgetary actors. Executive budget analysts and legislative budget analysts are important gatekeepers in the budgetary process. These actors were surveyed to ascertain what influences their decisions and to determine what responsibilities are included in their job duties. The results show that many similarities exist between executive budget analysts and legislative budget analysts. Legislative budget analysts are more involved in the budgetary process than many believe. Consequently, they play important “gatekeeping” roles in the budgetary process.

State budgeting processes and decision making have been the subject of numerous research efforts. Such studies have been based upon the premise that improved budget processes will improve budget decisions and resource allocations. Among the specific topics of such studies have been the nature and focus of state budgetary processes and innovations as well as inquiries into the training and background of state budgeting personnel. This study focused on the perceived contributions of budget theory, processes and concepts by state budget practitioners. The inquiry also analyzed the differences between state budget directors and their staffs regarding such "perceived" contributions. The results indicate a high degree on similarity of perceived values of the various budget theories, processes and concepts by both groups. Budget process and evaluation concepts were identified as valued concepts which enhanced their budget preparation and execution skills. Both groups indicated a high value for revenue and expenditure forecasting. Such high values probably result, in part, from the fiscal stress encountered by state governments over the past decade. Overall, the study further clarifies which budgeting concepts and processes are most highly valued by state budget practitioners. In addition, the results provide insights for the design of budgeting and financial management courses in public administration and professional development programs.

This paper investigates the microbudgeting decisionmaking process by budget analysts in a state budget office. Drawing upon the problem representation research in political psychology and the budget rationality research within public administration, the paper develops a microbudgetary decisionmaking model in which budget problems are treated as multi-faceted problems, with each facet viewed through a unique problem frame. A holistic approach to the budget problem yields a budget rationality needed to produce a solution set of acceptable recommendations from the analyst to the budget director and governor. The model may have wider applicability across a variety of governments.

The article examines recent reforms in the financial and resource management of government administration in Singapore. The aim of these reforms is to bring the financial and resource management of the public service more into line with practices of large business organizations and broadly correspond with the so-called “managerialist” reforms adopted by government administration in other countries. The reforms include financial delegation, target setting and performance measurement, accrual accounting, output-linked budgeting, the creation of self-managing agencies in government ministries, and periodic zero-based and financial control reviews. In conclusion the article considers the aims of and reasons for these reforms.

This paper draws on the case of a multinational energy company to explore the role played by management control systems (MCSs) in enacting governance policies at the local (subsidiary) level.

This research mobilizes the literature on governmentality to interpret MCSs as technologies of government that can be drawn upon to translate governance policies into practice. In particular, the authors discuss this process by interpreting “governance” as an epistemic object, that is an object that generates knowledge because of its inherent incompleteness and abstract nature.

The paper shows how MCSs act as technical objects insofar they attract, bind and engage local subsidiary managers in the generation of knowledge about governance policies (i.e. the epistemic object) set at the global level, thereby enacting these policies locally.

The findings have practical implications by showing how subsidiary managers engage with MCSs to translate and implement broader governance policies in their daily activities.

This research contributes to the accounting literature on governmentality by showing the role of MCSs as technologies that enact governance at the local level through the process of knowledge generation that these technologies enable. Such knowledge is triggered by the engagement between different participating subjects, attracted by MCSs in the attempt to define governance in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of changes to the Arkansas budget process brought about when the people of Arkansas voted to move from a biennial to an annual budget period in 2008. The paper describes the legislative changes necessary for annual budget review and explores the impact of annual budget review on revenue forecasting, supplemental appropriations, special sessions, legislative staff workload, executive branch oversight and state spending. This research assesses legislative perceptions of annual budget review across several factors including knowledge of the state budget, ability to check the powers of the governor and overall efficacy of annual budget review.

This exploratory research uses interview data from the Legislative Fiscal Director and data from an online survey of Arkansas state legislators. The interview and survey data were supplemented by an analysis of documents produced by legislative staff regarding supplemental appropriations, special sessions and state general revenue.

The Legislative Fiscal Director interview indicates that the change in budget period had little impact on revenue forecasting, special sessions and state government spending, with the exception that supplemental appropriations for Big 6 agencies increased in a statistically significant way following the advent of the fiscal session. The legislative survey finds that the change in budget period is viewed positively by Arkansas legislators. Most legislators indicated that they prefer annual budget review to biennial budget review.

Because of the exploratory approach, the research results may lack generalizability.

This paper surveys legislators on the efficacy of annual budget review which has seldom been done in previous research.

In the United States, the 1993 Government Performance and Result Act (GPRA) has increased public demand for governments not only to produce and deliver public goods and services, but also to demonstrate program effectiveness, which is the ultimate goal of a public program's existence, mission, and spending. This public management approach parallels the results-oriented management, which aims to strengthen organizational effectiveness and emphasize the need to integrate all major activities and functions, an activity that will direct them toward advancing organization-wide strategic goals or fundamental policy agendas (Kettl, 1997). Managers use program outputs and outcomes as implementation benchmarks to identify implementation means or directions (Kettl, 1997). By reporting performance measurement results to the public and policy makers, public managers are held accountable for the tax-dollars spent to produce and deliver public services in the most efficient and effective way (Aristigueta, 2007). Performance measurement results, especially those related to outcome achievement, are partially useful in budget allocation from the perspective that the tax-dollars spent are tied to desirable outcomes rather than to program input costs that may or may not correspond with public desires (DuPont-Morales & Harris, 1994).

This study aimed to examine the adoption of consortium blockchain technology to ensure interoperability for the transparency of budgetary control in Ghanaian local government.

This study is based on the design science research (DSR) observational technique for developing a consortium blockchain budgetary control system for Ghana's local government.

The study resulted in the design of a consortium blockchain monitoring and evaluation system to set up a mechanism to monitor various budget projects, processes and transactions for Ghana's local government. The findings also proved Ghana is ideally positioned to gain an advantage from designed artefacts such as ours, given its digital financial service (DFS) policy. In addition, the evaluation of the designed artefact proves there will be a positive impact on budgetary processes by addressing transparency concerns; however, the success of this concern depends on how the local government organisation embraces the artefact.

The study sheds light on budget monitoring and evaluation tied to peer-to-peer (P2P) participation in the public sector via an advanced administrative digitalised networking and communication algorithm (A Distributed Ledger Technology - blockchain). The difference between the designed artefact and the traditional M&E system is argued. The study is limited by the paradoxes and inefficiencies of the integration of blockchain into the Ghanaian local government but, at the same time, presents a high level of certainty and possibility.

The proposed artefact has presented relevance because it is a new solution to existing concerns like trust, transparency, accountability and compliance, thereby improving local government budget administration.

The study has offered unique and new methods, guidelines and designs for tracking various budget projects and processes beyond the conventional technology-driven approach via DSR, exhibiting a unique solution for solving budget transparency, trust, accountability, compliance and data accessibility concerns.

This chapter develops a methodology to assist critical facility operators in designing physical protection systems to defend against a single adversary (thief, saboteur, terrorist, etc.) attack. The developed methodology utilizes a multicriteria decision-making approach that balances the competing goals of minimal security system cost and maximum system performance. The methodology utilizes a network-based approach to facility security system design and analysis, which locates physical protection (detection, delay, and response) elements throughout a facility. These elements enable the facility owner to prevent attacks through deterrence and to defeat the adversary if he or she chooses to attack. The developed approach results in the ability for the facility operator to assess relative facility and/or infrastructure safety, and make decisions regarding how to optimally allocate resources for physical protection elements to balance cost and performance. A hypothetical example is discussed which demonstrates the usefulness of the developed methodology.