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The purpose of this paper is to identify stakeholders’ expectations of information to be conveyed in local authorities’ annual reports and to develop an index of best practice performance reporting.

The paper describes the development of a disclosure index emphasizing the public interest aspect of reporting and the need to provide relevant and meaningful information to stakeholders. The index was crafted from a public accountability perspective and based on the expectations of stakeholders as reconciled and validated by a Delphi panel of experts.

The wide scope of information that was identified as being important for disclosure by local authorities is consistent with the public accountability paradigm which requires the reporting of comprehensive information (both financial and non financial), about the condition, performance, activities and progress of the entity.

The research posits a model of best practice performance reporting for Malaysian, and other, local authorities to meet the need for greater accountability by these entities.

Change in the New Zealand state education system during the 1980s brought about a transfer of responsibility for school financial management from the centre to the school level. The purpose of this paper is to report an investigation of how aspects of this devolved responsibility have been operationalised and managed in a secondary school setting.

The empirical study is based on four case studies.

The paper concludes that the expectations of an espoused economic‐rationalist approach to school‐based management have yet to fully permeate into the schools' way of “doing” devolved financial management. Accounting and management technologies have come to be used as a tool of rhetoric and have served a useful, political purpose, although not in the way intended by the reform architects.

This conclusion raises a question about the administrative reform and whether the consequential outcomes have yielded the espoused efficiency and educational quality gains.

The purpose of this study is to identify the extent to which not-for-profit (NFP) organisations disclose information on volunteer contributions of services.

The study relies on information disclosed in the web sites of NFP organisations.

This paper finds that disclosure was more prevalent on NFP web sites compared to digital annual report disclosures. This paper finds that more NFPs provided disclosure on the activities of their volunteers than other items pertaining to volunteers and the quantification and valuation of volunteer contributions were the least likely to be disclosed. Importantly, the findings illustrate an accountability deficiency in the comprehensiveness of disclosure which results in an under-representation of the contribution that volunteers provide to organisational sustainability and impact on mission fulfilment.

The convenience sample size restricts further interrogation to tease out organisational characteristics that may influence current disclosure practices.

The findings contribute to international debate over the inclusion of volunteer contributions in the assessment of a NFP's accountability over its resources and ultimately the enhancement of its sustainability.

This exploratory study examines the current state of practice in the disclosure of volunteer contributions at an organisational level in the Australian context.

Purpose – This chapter aims to identify stakeholder perceptions on the service performance accountability of Malaysian local authorities.

Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey provides the primary source of information, and both descriptive and analytical methods are employed to support the analysis of the empirical findings.

Findings – The chapter shows that despite a strong interest amongst stakeholders for greater accountability of Malaysian local authorities, a standard definition and scope of accountability has not emerged. However, the findings do indicate a new bond of accountability emerging between local authorities and its broader public than previously existed.

Research limitations – The findings and discussion are limited to the propositions put forward in the questionnaire. Alternative research methods would complement the findings.

Originality/value – The findings contribute to our understanding of accountability as interpreted by key stakeholders of local authorities located within the context of a developing country. This could potentially assist Malaysian public sector administrators whereby, and arguably, enhancing the public accountability of local authorities may contribute to an improvement in the performance management of Malaysian local authorities.