1,720,969 research outputs found
International political economy: north south relations and neocolonialism France ‘pushing’ through an accounting reform in its former African colony
No full textThis paper examines the case of a government accounting reform in a former French colony in Africa, nicknamed T Republic1, through the lens of international political economy. The reform is concerned with the introduction of a computerised recording and reporting process in the government accounting system. It is particularly important since it was introduced at a time when there was almost no set of government accounting information and financial statistics. Further, in addition to improving governance, decision making and government accountability among other objectives, the reform has also the potential of developing local capability in the area of government accounting technology rooted in the local environment through learning by experience. However, the reform failed to achieve these objectives in a significant manner. North-South relations and neo-colonial factors are found to have led to this lack of succes
Les institutions de contrôle en Afrique francophone : L’indépendance relative de l’Inspection Général d'État par rapport à la Cour des Comptes
No full textLa fonction d’audit ou de vérification externe remplie par les institutions supérieures de contrôle des finances publiques (ISC) revêt une importance capitale pour une bonne gestion des finances publiques et la bonne gouvernance, particulièrement dans les pays en développement. En vue d’aider les pays à renforcer cette fonction essentielle, l’INTOSAI a formulé en 2007 une déclaration sur l’indépendance des ISC basée sur les bonnes pratiques. Cependant cet idéal n'est pas atteint dans de nombreux pays d’Afrique sub-saharienne. La situation est particulièrement complexe dans les pays francophones où il y a généralement deux entités qui exercent cette fonction d’audit : la Cours des Comptes et l’Inspections Générales d'Etat. Cet article a réalisé, à titre introductif, une analyse comparative des rôles et niveaux d'indépendance relatifs de ces deux institutions au regard de la Déclaration de l'INTOSAI. L’article conclut que, malgré les améliorations récentes, aucune des deux institutions n’a atteint les niveaux d'indépendance proposés par l'INTOSAI
Political economy of accounting and governance in Africa
No full textGovernance has become an important concept in the development agenda and forms part and parcel of the development discourse and has, thus, become central in donor decisions. Unfortunately, while government accounting system is likely to contribute to strengthening governance, most efforts in the areas to ultimately improve governance fail or achieve limited results. This paper examines the views of various stakeholders on the ground to understand the lack of success in government accounting and governance initiatives. Our analysis is based on case studies conducted in two African countries, namely Benin and Ghana. Data was collected by ways of interviews, informal discussions and document analysis. The views of the participants were paramount in drawing tentative conclusions from the study. We find that weak governance and accounting systems and the resistance to improve go beyond widely reported corruption, weak capacity and lack of ownership but rather lie within the political economic forces and interests at work in Africa. Three groups of forces and interests are found to shape the state of governance and accounting system. These are (1) internal political system and institution forces, (2) internal economic interests/forces, and (3) international political economic forces and interests. In conclusion we suggest that in order to understand governance and how this should be improved requires engaging with the stakeholders on the ground. Furthermore, we conclude that accounting is central to the analysis of governance and should be accorded more importance in the development arena
Government accounting reform in an ex-French African colony: the political economy of neo-colonialism
No full textThis paper examines the political economy of introducing a computerised accounting system in a former French colony in Africa with little government accounting and few financial statistics. The reforms were a condition of structural adjustment programmes imposed by the World Bank to improve governance, decision making and government accountability in a country with a turbulent political history since independence, and weak and often corrupt governance. The reform was unusual in that indigenous civil servants had considerable discretion over the choice and development of the system. Thus the local capability in developing government accounting technology suited to the local context and derived from learning by experience was created. The system was widely regarded as effective but it was abandoned for a French system which ultimately proved problematic. The decision to change the system and its ensuing problems are attributed to North-South relations, indigenous neopatrimonial leadership, and neocolonialism, especially by France in Francophone Africa
Accounting and Development in Africa
No full textDespite accounting being often seen as a crucial ingredient in economic and social development for African countries with pressing needs to meet development challenges (such as alleviating poverty, improving sanitation and public infrastructures, increasing literacy, and improving health), research on African accounting and development is often neglected and relegated to the periphery, especially in leading accounting journals. This Special Issue features a variety of works – theoretically, methodologically, and empirically spanning a wide range of countries across Africa, seeking to redress this and provide avenues and questions for further reflection and future research. In particular, the articles in this Special Issue document the role of accounting in Africa across the private, public and third sectors, and how the role is constrained and compromised by the political economy at play in the continent. The constraints and compromises relate to: (1) external actors, namely international financial institutions, Western governments, international accounting standard setters, Western accounting associations pursuing global growth, and the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms; and (2) local actors and circumstances, such as domestic governments, weak regulation, low accounting capacity, and webs of corruption. The reported problems with accounting in Africa appear not to reside primarily in accounting per se, but with how it is conceived, implemented and used to achieve particular interests, mostly at the expense of social, economic and institutional development at the domestic level
Globalisation, accounting and developing countries
Get PDFAccounting is an instrument and an object in globalisation but its impact and manifestation is not uniform across Northern developed countries and Southern developing countries (DCs). This paper reviews contributions on globalisation and its influence on accounting in DCs, and identifies important research gaps. It examines the role of accounting in changing development policies, from state capitalism through neo-liberal market-based to good-governance policies. It then considers specific accounting issues, namely the diffusion of International Accounting Standards (now International Financial Reporting Standards) and how they promote global neo-liberalism; the development of the accounting profession in DCs in the face of competition from Northern global accounting firms and professional associations; accounting issues in state-owned organisations, and privatised and multinational corporations; government accounting reforms and the resurrection of the state in DCs; social and environmental accounting issues; and the rise of non-governmental organisations and their accounting and accountability. The discussion and conclusions reflect on achievements to date and important areas requiring further development
How the colonial legacy frames state audit institutions in Benin that fail to curb corruption
No full textSupreme audit institutions are an important pillar of governance and government resource management, particularly for controlling corruption. Francophone African countries inherited these from their former colonial power, France, but their role and function are limited. This paper argues that this is partly a legacy of their colonial experience. It investigates the Chamber of Accounts in Benin, the country's supreme audit institution, using the lenses of Ekeh (1975) two publics and legitimacy theory. Nonetheless, Ekeh's theory needed extending to incorporate changes affecting governance after Benin's independence. The amorality of political officials, accepted by much of Benin society, rendered the institution largely ineffective in controlling corruption. Nevertheless, civil society organizations, donors, and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have attempted to redress this. Politicians and government officials responded by engaging in symbolic compliance to meet stakeholders’ expectations. A separate audit institution – the General Inspectorate of State – was established under the sole control of the President to gain external legitimacy and retain donors’ budget support, whilst persistent corruption and rising poverty continue. Benin's auditing institutions have become empty crates, which sometimes facilitate rather than control corruption.</p
Citizen Accountability in Open Government: A Case of a Canadian Local Government
Get PDFAccountability is a considerably complex and ambiguous social construct involving multiple elements. As an element of good governance, accountability has been the focus of a vast body of literature in public administration. A recent initiative aimed at improving citizen accountability (CA) that has been introduced and implemented in public governments in several countries is titled Open Government (OG). OG principles suggest that enhancing citizen engagement and transparency will improve CA and trust. However, the empirical research on how the entire CA process works in such a context is limited. The aim of this research is to explore the CA relationship between a local democratic OG and the citizens of a city in Ontario, Canada. Given the nature of the research questions (“How”) and considering that the study focuses on a contemporary phenomenon (i.e., CA) in a specific real-life context (i.e., a local OG), a case study was conducted in a city in Ontario that had adopted and implemented OG initiatives. Semi-structured interviews with elected and appointed officials of the city provided the primary sources of data. Archival data from social media platforms and municipal documents provided secondary sources of data for this study. A conceptual model of accountability by Bovens (2007a) informs the methodology and data analysis. The findings show that in the context of this case study, citizens are actively creating new accountability forums, which is facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). Findings contribute to the literature on accountability through emergent themes that help to explain the accountability process in this case, that were previously not explained with conceptual models offered in the extant literature. Citizens were found to play a role in mediating the information provision phase of accountability relationships in the context of OG. Thus, this study also contributes to the public administration literature by demonstrating how accountability is arranged in an OG context and how the process of CA may be carried out in this case. Regarding practical contributions, the findings resulted in several managerial recommendations for public organizations. Study limitations, theoretical implications, and future research directions are discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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