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Article
Publication date: 2 January 2009

Kerry Jacobs and Kate Jones

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of whether two early Australian public accounts committees were established for the purpose of legitimating governments of the…

2922

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of whether two early Australian public accounts committees were established for the purpose of legitimating governments of the time.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper addressed these issues through a study of the establishment, early work and abolition in the 1930s of the Victorian Committee of Public Accounts (VCPA) and the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA).

Findings

Clear evidence is found that the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA) had been copied from the VCPA and that the VCPA had been copied from the UK House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, which was established in 1861. This would indicate that the primary objective in the establishment of both these committees was legitimation rather than control. It was found that the subsequent work of both the VCPA and the JCPA showed a drift away from an accounting focus towards a policy focus. This is similar to the JCPA experience described by Degeling et al. in relation to the JCPA, which also supports the legitimation argument. It was also found that both committees could be disestablished with relative ease because their legitimating purpose was no longer strong enough to demand their continuation and that, in fact, their abolition became the factor that served a legitimating purpose for governments.

Originality/value

The paper suggests that the ideas of legitimation and mimetic isomorphism provide a more convincing explanation for the nature and work of these two public accounts committees than the idea of accounting colonisation.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2010

Abstract

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1996

Pieter Degeling, Janet Anderson and James Guthrie

Public accounts committees (PACs) in Australia as elsewhere are usually discussed and assessed in terms of their contributions to realizing the accountability of ministers and…

15074

Abstract

Public accounts committees (PACs) in Australia as elsewhere are usually discussed and assessed in terms of their contributions to realizing the accountability of ministers and their departments to Parliament. Analysis of the history of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA) of the Australian Commonwealth Parliament for the period 1914‐1932 shows, however, that the committee’s claimed centrality to financial accountability in government guaranteed neither the content of the issues which commanded its attention nor its survival. Suggests that the activities and standing of the JCPA were emergent contextually rather than design predetermined. Discusses the implications of these findings for further research.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 July 2021

Laurence Ferry and Henry Midgley

The study focusses on explaining why advocates for reform to state audit in the United Kingdom (UK) in the early 1980s, focussed on improving the links between the new National…

Abstract

Purpose

The study focusses on explaining why advocates for reform to state audit in the United Kingdom (UK) in the early 1980s, focussed on improving the links between the new National Audit Office (NAO) and Parliament, rather than on traditional notions of audit independence. The study shows how this focus on the auditor's link to Parliament depends on a particular concept of liberty and relates this to the wider literature on the place of audit in democratic society.

Design/methodology/approach

Understanding the issue of independence of audit in protecting the liberties and rights of citizens needs addressed. In this article, the authors investigate the creation of audit independence in the UK in the National Audit Act (1983). To do so, the authors employ a neo-Roman concept of liberty to historical archives ranging from the late 1960s to 1983.

Findings

The study shows that advocates for audit reform in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s were arguing for an extension to Parliament's power to hold the executive to account and that their focus was influential on the way that the new NAO was established. Using a neo-Roman concept of liberty, the authors show that they believed Parliamentary surveillance of the executive was necessary to secure liberty within the UK.

Research limitations/implications

The neo-Roman republican concept of liberty extends previous studies in considering the importance of audit for public accountability, the preservation of liberty and democracy.

Practical implications

Public sector audit can be a fundamentally democratic activity. Auditors should be alert to the constitutional importance of their work and see parliamentary accountability as a key objective.

Originality/value

The neo-Roman concept of liberty extends previous studies in considering the importance of audit for public accountability, preservation of liberty and democracy.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1998

Christine Ryan

Governments in Australia are in the process of implementing accrual reporting for their departments and governments as a whole. The central issue of this paper is to provide an…

8414

Abstract

Governments in Australia are in the process of implementing accrual reporting for their departments and governments as a whole. The central issue of this paper is to provide an explanation as to how general purpose financial reporting became a significant issue for governments in Australia. Agenda‐setting literature provides the framework within which to analyse the specific events and strategies used by public sector accountants to promote accrual technologies. The main finding of the research is that accrual technologies have been promoted by public sector accountants working from within government institutions, and often aligned with the organised accounting profession. Prior to the late 1980s the Auditors‐General were the main actors involved, however, more recently, accounting technologies have been promoted by accounting policy units within Treasuries and Departments of Finance. The paper concludes with a call for future research on the implications of such accounting changes for organisational and social functioning.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 11 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2000

D.B. van der Schyf

The point of exit in this research is that there should be an internal audit department in a national government department in South Africa to render a top‐class internal auditing…

Abstract

The point of exit in this research is that there should be an internal audit department in a national government department in South Africa to render a top‐class internal auditing service that is cost‐effective and affordable, preferred by clients, continuously complies with the standards of professional practice of internal auditing and best practice and have a positive impact on the national government department’s bottom line. The empirical research has highlighted several factors, including the ignorance of key role players and lack of professional proficiency on the part of internal auditors, as factors that impede the establishment and operation of an internal auditing function in the public sector in South Africa. It is recommended, that audit committees in the public sector should launch a joint marketing action, directed at key role players, to promote the potential value of a top‐class internal auditing service in the public sector, as well as the factors that impede it.

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Laurence Ferry, Henry Midgley and Stuart Green

The study explains why Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom (UK) focused on accountability through data during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on how data could be used to…

Abstract

Purpose

The study explains why Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom (UK) focused on accountability through data during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on how data could be used to improve the government’s response to the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Understanding the implications of accountability for COVID-19 is crucial to understanding how governments should respond to future pandemics. This article provides an account of what a select committee in the UK thought were the essential elements of these accountability relationships. To do so, the authors use a neo-Roman concept of liberty to show how Parliamentary oversight of the pandemic for accountability was crucial to maintaining the liberty of citizens during the crisis and to identify what lessons need to be learnt for future crises.

Findings

The study shows that Parliamentarians were concerned that the UK government was not meeting its obligations to report openly about the COVID-19 pandemic to them. It shows that the government did make progress in reporting during the pandemic but further advancements need to be made in future for restrictions to be compatible with the protection of liberty.

Research limitations/implications

The study extends the concept of neo-Roman liberty showing how it is relevant in an emergency situation and provides an account of why accountability is necessary for the preservation of liberty when the government uses emergency powers.

Practical implications

Governments and Parliaments need to think about how they preserve liberty during crises through enhanced accountability mechanisms and the publication of data.

Originality/value

The study extends previous work on liberty and calculation, providing a theorisation of the role of numbers in the protection of liberty.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2007

H.A. van Wyk

The purpose of this article is to assess the state of financial reporting in provincial government departments in South Africa. One of the obstacles in transforming financial…

814

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to assess the state of financial reporting in provincial government departments in South Africa. One of the obstacles in transforming financial reporting in South Africa is changing from cash accounting to accrual accounting. The survey in this study revealed that, while most public sector accounting guidelines and legislation are in place, government departments are still using cash accounting. The current accounting information system seems to be unsuitable for accrual accounting. Respondents assigned a poor rating to the effectiveness of public sector financial reporting, and the slow rate at which this system is being transformed.

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1994

Gerald Vinten

Sometimes an issue can remain dormant for a long period of time before receiving governmental and legislative attention. Debate on corporate governance has coincided with a number…

Abstract

Sometimes an issue can remain dormant for a long period of time before receiving governmental and legislative attention. Debate on corporate governance has coincided with a number of measures impacting on the charitable sector which, taken together, have the effect of bringing about improvements in the overall corporate governance climate for the charity, and re‐inforcing the centrality of the charity as an important instrument of social policy. The aim of this article is to explore this battery of measures, their historical context, and the varying fortunes of the charitable sector in its social policy role.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 14 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Andrea Bernardi and Brian Hilton

This paper analyses public sector accounting and organisation reforms, focusing on the departments in charge of defence, military procurement and war between 1850 and 2000 in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper analyses public sector accounting and organisation reforms, focusing on the departments in charge of defence, military procurement and war between 1850 and 2000 in Britain. Over this period, three parliamentary acts, resulting from a power struggle between the Treasury and Parliament, produced the shift between two institutional logics: probity (spending properly) and performance (spending well). The purpose of this paper is to describe how the acts produced a shift between two institutional logics.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt Quattrone’s (2015) procedural notion of institutional logics and the consequent concept of “unfolding rationality”. Using documents from the National Archives, the authors analyse three reforms: The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 (towards probity), The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1921 (towards performance) and the National Audit Office Act of 1983 (towards performance and probity).

Findings

For a long time, the actors narrated in this story argued and acted as if probity and performance were incompatible. The two are now treated as compatible and equally important. Before that, the “incompatibility” was a rhetorical, or “procedural”, device. The authors argue that a procedural rather than substantive notion of institutional logics is more suitable to explain the trajectory that was the result of constant negotiation among actors.

Practical implications

The study might contribute to the understanding of the increase in national defence-spending at continental level and the call for a common European Union (EU) military procurement strategy that followed the invasion of Ukraine. The war could produce changes in what is a traditional tension between two logics: sovereignty or efficiency.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper stands in highlighting the link between the institutional logic of public-administration accounting and military history. This link emerges also thanks to a very long time-horizon. Additionally, from a theoretical viewpoint, the authors have put Quattrone’s approach to the test in a context very different from the original one (the Jesuit order).

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