1,721,054 research outputs found
Using the Internet for communicating results: A comparison of Local Government websites in France, Italy and Spain
No full textThis article analyses the use of the internet to communicate performance information by large cities in France, Italy and Spain (Barcelona, Marseilles and Milan). The internet has a major role to play in improving accountability and responsiveness to citizens. The authors recommend that the cites develop better
knowledge management systems, increase the interactivity of their websites, and enrich the accounting information that they present
Practices of Social Reporting in Public Sector and Non-Profit Organizations. An Italian Perspective
No full textThe definition of corporate corruption prevention during the last decade: Bibliometrics and content data for the future research agenda
Full text linkThe purpose of this research is to provide a valuable study about the development of literature on corruption prevention during the last decade suggesting the way for the future agenda. We collected documents with the aims to develop a structured literature review (SLR). We collected 113 documents adopting a not grey analysis. Our results shows two main research areas: (i) the corruption prevention understanding its features and using accounting and ethical activities in the business and government procurement and (ii) anticorruption measures, disclosure and behaviours as renewed tools to increase corporate governance sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This is the first time for proposing the SLR on corporate corruption preventions and renewed models directed to build an updated background and emerging issues. This paper is original because proposes for the first time the literature collection of corporate corruption prevention's models providing valuable insights, critique and definition for the future research
Governmental accounting reforms at a time of crisis: the Italian governmental accounting harmonization
Full text linkPurpose: Acknowledging fiscal crises as critical junctures for policy makers, this paper investigates how the recent fiscal crisis has affected the paradigmatic approach to the design of an ongoing governmental accounting (GA) reform. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the Italian GA harmonization as a peculiar instance of an ongoing GA reform at the crisis outbreak. A longitudinal narrative analysis of official documents is complemented with semi-structured interviews with key policy makers and participant observations. Findings: The fiscal crisis is found to play an indirect role in the Italian GA reform, which, promoting centralization of competencies in the fields of GA, determines the intensification of the approach adopted before the crisis outbreak. Research limitations/implications: This paper extends the knowledge on the nature of post-crisis reforms by highlighting how fiscal crises can work as catalysts for paradigmatic approaches to ongoing GA reforms. This paper analyses the designing of a GA reform, whereas the long-term adaptations and outcomes of the reform are not taken into consideration. Practical implications: The tight link between GA and financial management issues featuring the current paradigmatic approaches to reforms suggests the need to design GA reforms consistently with fiscal and financial management policies. Originality/value: Whereas the extant literature on the nature of post-crisis reforms analyses the latter as responses to the former, this paper enlarges the knowledge on the topic by focusing on a peculiar instance of a GA reform that was ongoing at the crisis outbreak
Converging Trends in Social Reporting Regulation: the Case of Italian Public and Non-profit Sectors
No full textItaly
No full textThis chapter, which is conceived for an international audience, offers an overview of the state of the art of public sector accounting in Italy.It deals separately with central and local government : in both of them reform bills have been passed over the last few years, that have introduced significant changes.It is then possible to briefly elaborate on a few working reflections upon the scope of accounting autonomy that national law has granted to local authorities; in the same time, it is interesting to make a comparison among the solutions specified by the law for these two levels of government.§ 2 illustrates the key innovations in central government accounting.§ 3 is devoted to the introduction of a modified accrual budget in central government accounting.The reform of local government accounting is discussed in § 4. The authors identify the main critical aspect of the previous accounting system and examine the reform process.The conclusions illustrate and discuss the gap between the reform’s objectives and its actual impact.Real effects of the Local Government Accounting Act only partly coincide with expectations. The authors highlight in particular that:- obligation- and cash-based accounting continues to prevail over accrual accounting in regard to all the issues relevant to the functioning of local governments, starting from the definition of current and capital transfers;- given the different accounting modalities, it is still quite difficult to compare the results of different local governments;- the new system still does not permit the identification of reliable efficiency and effectiveness indicators that truly help managers to take decisions;- accrual reports are, at least for now, virtually unusable and do not create any significant comments nor political debates.Therefore, the reform has failed to considerably improve the levels of accountability in Local governments.In order to propose an alternative improvement path for the functionality of the Italian local government accounting system the authors observe the reforms carried out in other countries, and identify the conditions required for the success of any top-down reform (as the Italian reform has actually been)
Presentazione della special issue "La prevenzione della corruzione nelle aziende e nelle amministrazioni pubbliche".
No full textEarnings management in state-owned enterprises: bringing publicness back in
Full text linkFinancial accountability is a major issue for State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) especially because of the large amount of public resources invested in them and the social relevance of their performance. In the awareness that the public interest is increasingly pursued in abstract arenas, the investigation of accounting should be anchored to conceptual rather than contextual spaces. Building on the dimensional concept of publicness, this paper investigates the impact of three publicness dimensions (ownership, political control, and goal ambiguity) on earnings management (EM) in SOEs, a managerial practice that affects the quality of financial accountability. Drawing on data from a sample of 1200 Italian SOEs, the conditional revenue model (Stubben, 2010) is used to estimate their EM during the period 2009-2017. These EM estimates are then regressed against dimensions of publicness. Findings show that publicness is either neutral or relevant for the quality of SOEs' financial accountability, depending on the dimensions analysed: while ownership and financial control are positively related to EM in SOEs, administrative control and goal ambiguity are not statistically significant predictors of EM. Moreover, the interaction of publicness dimensions does not affect EM in SOEs. Therefore, this paper shows that SOEs' publicness is either irrelevant or detrimental to the quality of SOEs' financial accountability, depending on the dimension of publicness considered. Efforts should be made to define policies and governance arrangements able to influence managers' behaviour in a way that preserves SOEs' financial accountability
The Albanian approach to municipal borrowing: form centralised control to market discipline
No full textLocal governments (LGs) in transitional countries face pressing infrastructure needs, which, given the severe shortcomings of
traditional funding, make a strong case for debt financing. This article explores the case study of Albania, using document
analysis and interviews with mayors, civil servants, citizens and investors. We go beyond an analysis of technical aspects
(macroeconomic conditions and legal constraints on borrowing) to include ‘soft’ elements (political and managerial issues,
attitudes of key actors), with the aim of highlighting the approach adopted under current policies and the approach that should be adopted. Favorable macroeconomic conditions and the completeness of the legal framework have motivated policy-makers to choose the market model. Their aim is to develop the financial market rapidly; however, the development of sound management systems at the local level is largely ignored. We argue that the role of managerial capacities, public accountability and professional mechanisms is not adequately taken into account. Future policies need to make the best use of some early
experiences of public participation and build upon the extensive training in accounting and auditing issues provided to local civil servants in order to exploit other models of municipal borrowing control
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