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The purpose of this study is to examine bribery and its accountability implications within Papua New Guinea's (PNG's) public sector.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 senior public servants from three central government departments. Perceptions, forms and accountability dimensions compromised through bribery were analysed through an actor network theory (ANT) lens to understand the actors contributing to bribery and how it might be addressed.

Forms (and variations) of bribery included “promises” by clients, pre-commitments by public servants and expectations/obligations imposed by public servants. Multiple and interdependent actors (including compromised accountability perceptions) are identified.

Findings provide important insights for public servants and policy-makers within and beyond PNG's government departments, highlighting the associated implications for individuals, the public sector and the country more broadly.

The incorporation and analysis of accountability dimensions through an ANT lens provides new perspectives on bribery. Further, the significance and extent of compromised accountability dimensions within the network suggests a broken accountability system.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role and importance of the annual report as a source of information about public sector entities.

This research uses a survey methodology to access users of public sector annual reports and is innovative because it has directly studied actual users across the entire public sector.

The findings of this research indicate that the annual report is an important source of information about public sector entities but it is not the most important source of information. This study also found that the annual report is not regarded as equally important across all public sector entity types. Differences in the importance attached to the annual report by different stakeholder groups were also noted.

These findings have important implications for policy makers with respect to the information content of public sector annual reports. In particular the blanket approach to legislative requirements for annual reporting may need to be reviewed in view of the findings of this research that there are differing levels of importance attached to the annual report as an information source by users from different public sector entity types.

The research in this paper is original in that it has, systematically and directly accessed users of public sector annual reports to determine their information sources.

The purpose of this paper is to strengthen the theoretical understanding of the processes through which a new regulator seeks to gain legitimacy within an existing regulatory space. The authors do this by investigating the case of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC).

Synthesising legitimacy theory with the concept of regulatory space, the authors analyse formal public discourse surrounding the establishment and operations of the ACNC.

Regulation is essentially a context-bound political process in which a new regulator needs to establish legitimacy to ensure its survival. It must convince its constituents that it has developed processes to operate effectively and professionally in addressing constituents’ needs, to bargain authoritatively with other regulators in establishing its operational boundaries, and to engage politically with government and constituents. Over a relatively short time, the ACNC built legitimacy, despite the political threats to its formal regulatory authority.

The conclusions are based on the analysis of one case. There is scope for further investigations of the processes by which new regulators establish their legitimacy in different contexts.

The potential for a political threat to the authority of a new regulator, and the difficulty of achieving regulatory reform, particularly in a federated system such as Australia, highlight the necessity for a new regulator to develop a compelling discourse of legitimacy.

The authors synthesise regulatory space and legitimacy perspectives, contributing to an understanding of the processes of regulation.

The purpose of this paper is to look at auditor obligations to their clients and potentially to third parties such as investors, with a focus on the quality of financial disclosure in an evolving legal framework.

The article outlines and compares established and emerging trends relative to information disclosure and contractual performance in parallel contexts where information asymmetry exists. In particular, this article considers the disclosure regime that has evolved in the insurance industry to address the substantial imbalance in the level of knowledge possessed by the insured in comparison to the prospective insurer. Abductive reasoning is used to identify causal constructs that explain the data pattern from which the theorised potential for judicial revision of the interpretation of “true and fair” in line with “good faith” in legal regulation is derived.

The authors conclude that there is little doubt that a duty of good faith in relation to auditor-company contractual dealings and potentially a broader good faith duty to third parties such as investors in companies may be on the horizon.

In the context of stated objectives by organisations such as the International Federation of Accountants to reconcile ethical and technical skills in the wake of the global financial crisis, there is an increased need to rebuild public and investor confidence in the underpinning integrity of financial reporting. This paper offers a perspective on one way to achieve this by recognising the similarities in the information asymmetry relationships in the insurance industry and how the notion of “good faith” in that relationship could be useful in the audit situation.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the appropriateness of a general‐purpose financial reporting model derived from a “decision‐useful” framework for government departments.

This research in this paper uses a survey methodology to access users of government department general purpose financial reports and is innovative because it has directly studied actual users across the entire public sector.

The findings of this paper indicate that general‐purpose financial reports are used to satisfy financial accountability and public accountability rather than decision making – indicative of users having an accountability focus rather than a “decision‐useful” focus. This provides systematic empirical evidence against the current financial reporting model used internationally in the public sector.

The paper has important implications for policy makers since the choice of an accounting framework has the capacity to affect the information content of reports – what is reported and how it is measured, and thus have a direct impact on the operations of government. The paper argues that it is crucial that public policy regulators re‐examine the financial reports provided to stakeholders.

The research in this paper is original in that it has, for the first time, systematically reviewed all of the three elements of the public sector general‐purpose financial reporting model as well as directly accessing users. The authors can categorically argue for the abandonment of the model in favour of one, which is better suited to the public sector.

Consists of a series of nine articles under the same title. Each article provides a different slant on the hiring process. Outlines the legal position when hiring employees and concentrates on providing a framework for managers. Covers areas including job analysis and descriptions, where to advertise and recruit, selection criteria, the interview, testing, negotiating the offer of employment and references. Briefly describes trends in employment practices and ways to minimize potential litigation through best practice.

JANET(the Joint Academic Network) is a wide‐area network linking together computers and users in British universities, polytechnics, establishments of the research councils, and the British Library. It provides for interactive working, file transfer, electronic mail and job transfer. Online access is possible to many catalogues of university and polytechnic libraries, the British Library's BLAISE‐LINE and ARTel services, and various bibliographic and numeric databases held on university computers. Users registered for electronic mail can use Janet to send this kind of mail to other sites in Britain, or overseas through the EARN, BITNET, and NORTHNET combined network. There are two‐way gateways between Janet and British Telecom network PDN, allowing access to commercial online hosts in Great Britain or overseas. These gateways can provide a faster and cheaper alternative to dial‐up use of PDN.

“In your October 1988 issue (Vol.5, No.9) you advise people making hardware decisions to purchase existing PC architecture rather than switching to the new OS/2 Micro‐Channel architecture. You correctly point out that the new hardware and software will be more expensive and that there is currently little software to take advantage of the new architecture. In your recommendation you state the following: ‘The proper time to switch, if ever, is when there is a super hardware package you just have to have which runs only on the new machines. If you want to switch just for the sake of it, it makes more sense to try a Macintosh than a PS/2.’