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This chapter describes the audit of local government in Italy. In Italy, as elsewhere, local audit has been affected by the implementation of new public management based reforms. There is an increasing trend towards collaboration and cooperation between the audited authority and the auditor. Audit has begun, as in other jurisdictions to widen its remit, so that it focusses on performance as much as financial and compliance issues. This change in role brings with it opportunities for the auditor to help public sector improvement but also challenges – as new skills are required for the new roles that the auditor takes on and audit independence is complicated by the cooperative nature of modern local government audit.

Electronic transactions play a substantial role in many automated transactions in government organizations. The introduction of e-government is key as among other benefits it will raise the quality and transparency, and reduce the corruption that may occur especially in money. Saudi Arabia is considered one of the G20 countries. These countries seek to maintain the international financial stability, where Saudi Arabia has an economic weight to influence the global economy. Through this chapter, we will understand the various benefits both socially and economically that the government of Saudi Arabia is reaping through the introduction of e-government. It is these impacts that have had a significant influence on the global market regarding economic impacts. To better understand this, we evaluate the various applications that have been included in the e-government to foster these establishments. Among them includes Yesser, Tadawul, Absher and the national contact center. From them, the government is enjoying various benefits that will raise them high the economic scale globally. Also, the author looks at the strategies that have been put in place by that particular government to ensure that e-government is established as planned.

We enter the 21st century with our societies undergoing a radical transformation amidst an atmosphere of optimism that global economic prosperity and peace will prevail. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness of the important role government and public administration play in facilitating economic and social change together with a growing realization of the shortcomings of that role. The general belief holds that the far-reaching socioeconomic, political, and technological changes currently taking place will render 21st bureaucracies obsolete. Thus, transformation of our public bureaucracies becomes imperative to avoid the stigma of obsolescence. Major administrative reform undertaking must be launched in every country, western or eastern alike, “governance” matters more and more these days.

The public relies upon the government for many areas of their lives such as: obtaining a driver’s license, applying for a job, licensing pets, applying for a business license, paying taxes, buying a home, or even applying for college admission. Starting from humble beginnings the invention of the computer system opened pathways for the community to interact with government agencies. In the early years of the computer and internet the federal government was known for their advances and for being at the forefront of technology. However, the same was not true for state and local governments who found themselves left behind the technological race. Somewhere in the early 2000’s even the federal government found themselves behind the private sector as integration and innovation became stagnate within government agencies. The workforce of these agencies did not change into a highly technical workforce until the costs of technology lowered and access and availability were more widely distributed to conduct business (Moon, 2002). Once technology started to trickle down to state and local governments it began to expand to all avenues of public service. In addition, the processes were streamlined for the public. However, issues such as lack of access, lack of computer skills, lack of government trust, and the risk to safety of personal information still hinder technological use at this level.

Financial management in government is unique because of the basic differences between the operation of organizations in the public and private sectors. Regardless, financial management is conducted by people and people react differently because of these unique characteristics in government operations. These basic differences are identified and described and their impact on managers and accountants are presented. Motivation and the management of change are given emphasis as are the factors that tend to improve productivity in the government financial management operation.

This study explores linkage between Alabama local governments’ lost General Revenue Sharing (GRS) and their resultant coping strategies in the years following this federal program’s demise. Previous studies have failed consistently to relate particular coping strategies to how GRS monies were spent and to differing magnitudes of GRS loss among governmental jurisdictions. This study finds a possible linkage between Alabama local governments that cut basic governmental services and their previous GRS “dependency” and spending preferences.

The purpose of this viewpoint is to provide a framework for future research on e‐government impact.

Using a concise review of major e‐government studies, we present a value framework for assessing the impact of e‐government. Specifically, we integrate the two stakeholder perspectives on e‐government namely the “government” and the “citizen” and identify areas where e‐government can provide returns.

The model delineates three government and five citizen areas where e‐government may create an impact. The three government areas are policy making, program administration, and compliance. The five citizen areas are financial, political, social, ideological, and stewardship. The impact in these areas is created because of two major value‐generating mechanisms: enhancements in efficiency and enhancements in effectiveness. Further, the impact is created at different levels of analyses: local, state, and central governments.

This viewpoint provides a timely discussion on returns from e‐government and provides a value framework for assessing these returns. It also provides several suggestions for future research in this area. This viewpoint is a call for systematic future research on the impact of e‐government.

If governments are really to stimulate the information society, they must lead from the front. That means redesigning government communications from the ground up, in ways that engage citizens and encourage e‐commerce. Local portals could pave the way, but first they must win over Web users from other communications channels. That means attracting the best content – and one way for governments to do that is to set a standard in pricing and marketing their own data.

The study aims to examine the role of information technology in Local Government Administration in Delta State, using Aniocha North and Aniocha South Local Government Areas as the case study.

A survey approach was used to learn what was actually happening in local government practices.

IT contributes enormous value to the workings and operations of local government offices and when costs, leadership and management are indicative of such needs, it would be in the best interest of local governments to invest in such a launch.

Economic feasibility and training and development of the human resource function would make enormous differences in the way local governments conduct their work in Delta State, Nigeria.

Local governments like libraries are great potential for IT applications and to build databases of information to be retained and recalled over time.

Applied the imperativeness of information technology practices to see how local practices could be improved for efficiency, quality control and ease of use.