1,721,068 research outputs found
Accounting, Transparency and Governance: the Heritage Assets Problem
Full text linkPurpose– This paper aims at offering a contribution which addresses one particular issue – heritage assets – as an exemplar of the challenges facing accounting practices in achieving transparency in government and public services.Design/methodology/approach– After having identified three levels of transparency, a documentary analysis is used as the primary research method.Findings– The investigation carried out reveals that the first level, or minimal level, of transparency is unlikely to be achieved for public organizations with heritage assets, mainly due to deep seated, pernicious problems of asset recognition and valuation.Originality/value– This paper contributes to the debate on what constitutes “good public governance” by examining whether accounting can foster or enhance “good governance” through the lens of transparency.<br/
The Primacy of, and Complexity of, Accounting for Government
No full textThis special issue is based on a selection of papers from the 13th CIGAR conference held at Ghent on May 2011. Previous research on government accounting (Lapsley (2000), Kurunmaki, Lapsley and Miller (2011)) has identified both the importance of accounting in government and the need for further work in a relatively neglected area of accounting research. In this special issue we identify current trends in research in this area and point to areas of potential research
“Managing” wicked problems: Uncovering the roles of budgets, financial systems, and collaboration
Full text linkSpecial Issue on Performance Management in Public Services
No full textThis is a special issue on performance measurement in the public sector
The shaping of public services through calculative practices: The roles of accountants, citizens, professionals, and politicians
Full text linkThis contribution introduces the special issue on the roles of accounting practices in the context of reforms to and within public service organizations. The papers in the special issue provide fresh insights into the ways in which calculative practices intervene in public services, and thus come to affect the experiences of such actors, offering important perspectives on how the latter act to resist, reshape, redefine, and change those very practices, or strategically and tactically use (or avoid the use of) accounting to impact the ways in which services are defined and delivered
Making Management Auditable: The Implementation of Best Value in Local Government
No full textThis article examines the implementation of Best Value—an audit tool of the U.K. government’s modernization policy—in local government, specifically in Scotland. This is a study of the impact of this key concept, primarily on the management of these public services. The aim of Best Value Audit is to enhance transparency and accountability of management actions in local government. The article draws on Power’s (1997) Audit Society thesis to inform this research. The Best Value approach has been heavily influenced by audit processes and oversight bodies both
in its design and implementation. This article supports the Power thesis of the Audit Society: It reveals the manner in which audit practices are deployed by agencies of central government with the intent to shape the management of local government
On the Implementation of Accrual Accounting: A Study of Conflict and Ambiguity
No full textThere has been a major debate on the merits of accrual accounting in the public sector in general. This paper is an implementation study of accrual accounting in local government. It examines this issue from an implementation perspective. The implementation perspective adopted draws on Matland's ambiguity-conflict model (1995). This research is informed by a combined methods approach: the analysis of public documents and debates; a survey of local authority capital accountants and case study information on management's perceptions of this accounting information. This research reveals a complex outcome of reformers' initiatives which has resulted in these accounting changes being retained within the accounting domain and having limited impact on wider potential users of this information.
The emergence of an accounting practice:The fabrication of a government accrual accounting system
Full text linkPurpose - This study aims to add to our understanding of the nature of accrual accounting by examining the process involved in its construction, as a dynamic and controversial process. This paper reveals how it was built and constantly modified,reinforced or negated during the process of implementation.Design/methodology/approach - this paper's focus on a government initiative with multiple actors present in the laboratory. Specifically, this study offers a close examination of the day to-day activities of a laboratory case study, it focuses on participant observation in video-conference calls. The discussions held by the project teams are analyzed to extend our enquiry into the most intimate aspects of fact construction (Latour & Woolgar, 1979). These excerpts illustrate the processes of accrual accounting construction and open up the possibility of studying the emergence of accrual accounting through the lens of an action net.Findings - The evidence collected identified the absence of a well-defined template for implementing accrual accounting in government. These results revealed an elaborate process of improvisation and fabrication in the design of this accounting system and a fragile network in action.Originality/value - Prior research on accrual accounting in government focused on the examination of existing accrual accounting systems with somewhat puzzling results on lack of use. In this study, the perspective has been shifted from focusing on accrual accounting as self-evident (Lapsley et al. 2009) to examining its construction. This paper examines this tension between the apparent certainties as espoused by practitioners and the problematic nature of accrual accounting in Government. It extends our knowledge of "black box accrual accounting," and shows that it is a fluid object with significant discretion in the determination of practice
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