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The purpose of this paper is to develop environmental accounting and reporting practices (EARPs) by Portuguese local entities and their determining factors.

Data were obtained through a postal survey. In order to measure the degree of development of environmental accounting and reporting practices index was developed, which reflects the extent to which a set of eight EARPs have been implemented by the 69 Portuguese local entities included in the sample. Three variables are considered in this study as possible factors that drive the development of environmental management practices (EMPs) by local entities, namely, size of entity, accounting framework, degree of development of EMPs.

Results indicate the degree of development of EARPs in Portuguese local entities is low. Additionally, accounting regulation and the degree of development of EMPs are explaining factors of the degree of development of environmental accounting practices in Portuguese local entities.

This study adds to the international research on environmental accounting in public sector by providing empirical data from a country, Portugal, where empirical evidence is still relatively limited.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of environmental management practices by Portuguese local entities and their determining factors.

The data were collected by sending a postal questionnaire. In order to measure the degree of development of environmental management practices, an index of environmental management practices (EMPI) was developed, which reflects the extent to which a set of 16 environmental management practices have been implemented by the entities included in the sample. In total, four variables are considered in this study as possible factors that drive the development of environmental management practices by local entities: type of entity; size; proactive environmental strategy; and Local Agenda 21.

Results indicate the degree of development of environmental management practices in Portuguese local entities is low. Additionally, entity size, the adoption of proactive environmental strategies and the implementation of Local Agenda 21 are explaining factors of the degree of development of such practices.

The paper adds to the international research on environmental management in the public sector by providing empirical data from a country, Portugal, where empirical evidence is still relatively limited.

This paper aims to address the possibilities for (performance‐based) control of externally autonomised (empowered) entities which operate at the level of local government in The Netherlands. The idea is that Dutch regulations do not cover controlling all institutional structures, which might result in unobserved risks for local governments.

Two basic methods are used: a literature study on the variety of institutional structures meant to design an overview. This is completed by a secondary research approach on the findings of 34 local audit offices that have studied the problem for their local government.

In The Netherlands, there is no all‐encompassing framework to cover control of autonomised entities at the local level. The most important problems to be solved are related to the specification of services to be delivered by local governments and the role conflict emerging from being owner/financial stakeholder in the organisation, on the one hand, and commissioner for the services of the organisation, on the other. This holds for almost all cases. The problem is even stronger in those cases where autonomised entities operate under a national framework for delivering services that have to fit in with local planning and control systems.

The analysis draws attention to the organisations not included in the standard regulatory framework of local governments; and contributes to the awareness of different roles of local government, being both commissioner and owner/financial stakeholder.

In recent years, most Organisation for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) countries have brought in important reforms into their public accounting systems with the objective of both improving public service management and increasing the transparency and accountability of governments. Reforms of government accounting share a common direction towards the implementation of accrual-based accounting systems. In this context, this paper presents the situation of local government accounting systems in European countries with the aim of showing the degree of uniformity/ heterogeneity that currently exists among the countries considered and why differences persist nowadays, trying to classify countries into groups according to accounting practice. Results show that three groups of countries can be identified: the first continues using the cash basis; in the second, an accrual or modified accrual basis is used for financial accounting but the cash basis still persists in the budgetary system; in the third, an accrual or modified accrual basis is used both in budget and in financial accounting.

Purpose — To provide a theoretical background to understand current local search engines as an aspect of specialized search, and understand the data sources and used technologies.

Design/methodology/approach — Selected local search engines are examined and compared toward their use of geographic information retrieval (GIR) technologies, data sources, available entity information, processing, and interfaces. An introduction to the field of GIR is given and its use in the selected systems is discussed.

Findings — All selected commercial local search engines utilize GIR technology in varying degrees for information preparation and presentation. It is also starting to be used in regular Web search. However, major differences can be found between the different search engines.

Research limitations/implications — This study is not exhaustive and only uses informal comparisons without definitive ranking. Due to the unavailability of hard data, informed guesses were made based on available public interfaces and literature.

Practical implications — A source of background information for understanding the results of local search engines, their provenance, and their potential.

Originality/value — An overview of GIR technology in the context of commercial search engines integrates research efforts and commercial systems and helps to understand both sides better.

During the first half of the nineties, many accounting innovations and reforms have been introduced in Spanish governmental accounting. In this context, the purposes of this paper are, on the one hand, to present the main features of local financial reporting legal requirements, which are very close to the central state accounting regulations, as well as real accountability and quality of reported information. On the other hand, this paper looks for an analysis of the main differences and similarities of accounting regulation among Spanish regional governments, identifying practices and users' expectations, as the result of a survey developed by the authors.. Also presented are some proposals concerned with a possible harmonised accounting and reporting common framework, in order to maintain the traditional homogeneity that has characterised the past governmental accounting system in Spain.

The application of new public governance by many countries has led to the creation of new management systems in public administration and the development of an effective accounting structure with efficient internal control to guarantee a proper provision of services that meet citizens’ requirements. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Spanish local government with the intention of determining the impact of the internal control structure on the disclosure of financial information on the internet.

The empirical analysis used combines a descriptive aspect with an explanatory one and seeks to answer the question of whether the internal control system (ICS) influences the disclosure of financial information on the websites of Spanish LGs. The authors use a multivariate model that allows us to verify the predictive capability of the previously defined explanatory variable, internal control, in 1,806 local governments. To test the hypotheses, the authors use two different models.

The authors consider the existence and quality of the financial information disclosure in relation to ICSs, and a series of financial and non-financial variables. The authors conclude that the structure of the ICS influences financial information disclosure and its quality. Also, the socio-political variable gives a better explanation of financial information disclosure than the financial variable.

This research is novel to determine whether the development of ICSs in Spanish municipalities has favored and increased the disclosure of financial information financial through the municipalities’ website transparency portal. These findings will contribute to increase the importance of internal control in the management of public entities.

The presence of women is lower than that of men in positions of responsibility in economic management in public administration, although there has been a more significant increase in local administration. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the application and development of the internal control system in local governments improves through the presence of women in positions of management and responsibility in these institutions.

The authors use a multivariate model that allows them to verify the predictive capability of their previously defined explanatory variable gender in 1,527 Spanish local governments. They analyze the empirical relation between the gender and internal control system by multivariate regression models.

The authors find that the presence of women in management positions in local governments affects internal control system influences as well as a series of financial and non-financial variables. They conclude that in local governments of more than 50,000 inhabitants, the presence of women in the management has a positive influence on internal control systems and also promotes transparency and a more effective fight against corruption, thus enhancing internal control systems.

The presence of women in positions of management and responsibility in local government will favor a decrease of corruption in local governments and increase their efficiency and transparency. This study can facilitate women’s access to positions of more economic and financial responsibility in public administration, as well as improve the management and efficiency in these institutions.

This research is novel in that it determines whether the application and development of the internal control system in local governments improves through the presence of women in the position of management and responsibility in these institutions.

The objective of this paper is to identify and provide a description, assessment, and analysis of frauds occurring in governmental entities at the federal, state, and local levels and to compare these findings to data from the private sector. Analyses are conducted along the following dimensions: the victim of the fraud, its perpetrator(s), the fraud scheme, and the detection and investigation of the fraudulent activity. In addition, the conditions under which the frauds occurred in both the public and private sectors are described, discussed, and analyzed. Data were obtained from a mail survey distributed to the membership of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. A total of 2,471 responses containing details of actual fraud cases were received. Of these, 611 cases described frauds that had occurred in governmental units and 1,860 depicted frauds that had occurred in the private sector. The findings of this study clearly indicate that no entity is immune to victimization by criminal activities of a financial nature.