scholarly journals Corporate municipal governance for effective and efficient public service delivery in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 98-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulin Mbecke

This research acknowledges the current service delivery chaos manifested through numerous protests justifying the weakness of the “Batho Pele” good governance principles to facilitate, improve and sustain service delivery by local governments. The success of corporate governance in corporate companies and state owned enterprises is recognised prompting suggestions that local governments should too adopt corporate governance principles or King III to be effective. The research reviews the King III and literature to ascertain the lack of research on corporate governance in local governments in South Africa. Considering the particular set-up of local governments, the research doubts the successful application of King III in local governments. Through critical research theory, the current service delivery crisis in local governments in South Africa is described. The success of corporate governance systems in the United Kingdom and Australian local governments justify the need for a separate corporate municipal governance system as a solution to the crisis. A specific change of legislation and corporate governance guidelines is necessary to address the uniqueness of local governments. Hence, corporate municipal governance should be compulsory and based on ten standardised good governance principles via a code of corporate governance and a corporate governance framework responding to specific prerequisites for success

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 581-593
Author(s):  
Peter Masegare ◽  
Mpho Ngoepe

Purpose This paper aims to develop a framework for incorporating implementation indicators of corporate governance for municipalities in South Africa. In South Africa, there is a corporate governance framework (King III report) that is regarded as a seminal work applicable to both the public and private sectors. Despite its existence, municipalities still struggle to provide services to the citizens due to poor implementation. The poor corporate governance implementation in municipalities led to several issues such as loss of credibility for local government, little interests from investors to invest in municipalities, service delivery protests from communities, maladministration and unexpected change of leadership in municipalities without succession planning in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The study conducted literature review to demonstrate the need for a framework to implement corporate governance in South Africa. Findings It is evident from the study that the municipal sector could improve its performance and practices of corporate governance, if the underpinning framework is adopted and implemented as a sector framework. The integration of governance elements during the development of the municipal sector integrated development plan (IDP) will facilitate a coherent base for good governance implementation practices. Research limitations/implications This research would go a long way in bringing out the anomalies that paralyse municipalities, the root causes of inefficiency and possible ways to rectify them. Practical implications This study offers a framework that can help the local government sector to improve on service delivery. Implementation of the framework can also assist municipalities in obtaining clean audits from the supreme audit institutions in their respective countries. Social implications The study has a huge social impact as it would help municipal officials take notice of the issues raised and act accordingly thus improving the life of citizenry. Originality/value This study adds value to the existing theoretical and conceptual issues that form the ongoing discourse on the implementation of corporate governance in local government, especially in South Africa, as the country is characteristic by corruption and maladministration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inge Stupak ◽  
Maha Mansoor ◽  
C. Tattersall Smith

AbstractWhile the quantity of sustainability governance initiatives and systems has increased dramatically, crises persist over whether specific governance systems can be trusted as legitimate regulators of the sustainability of economic activities. This paper focuses on conceptual tools to improve our understanding of these crises as well as the facilitating factors and barriers for sustainability governance to play a role in transitioning to profoundly more sustainable societies than those that currently exist. Bioenergy is used throughout the paper as an example to aid contextually in understanding the theoretical and abstract arguments. We first define eight premises upon which our argumentation is developed. We then define sustainability, sustainability transition, legitimacy, and trust as a premise for obtaining effectiveness in communication and minimising risks associated with misunderstanding key terms. We proceed to examine the literature on “good governance” in order to reflect upon what defines "good sustainability governance" and what makes governance systems successful in achieving their goals. We propose input, output, and throughput legitimacy as three principles constituting “good” sustainability governance and propose associated open-ended criteria as a basis for developing operational standards for assessing the quality of a sustainability governance system or complex. As sustainability governance systems must develop to remain relevant, we also suggest an adaptive governance model, where continuous re-evaluation of the sustainability governance system design supports the system in remaining “good” in conditions that are complex and dynamic. Finally, we pull from the literature in a broad range of sciences to propose a conceptual “governance research framework” that aims to facilitate an integrated understanding of how the design of sustainability governance systems influences the legitimacy and trust granted to them by relevant actors. The framework is intended to enhance the adaptive features of sustainability governance systems so as to allow the identification of the causes of existing and emerging sustainability governance crises and finding solutions to them. Knowledge generated from its use may form a basis for providing policy recommendations on how to practically solve complex legitimacy and trust crises related to sustainability governance.


Corporate governance provides an answer to the question who controls the corporation and how. It involves a set of relationships between management, shareholders and stakeholders. Corporate governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina is within the legal jurisdiction of entities, and consequently there are two substantially aligned and yet completely distinct corporate governance systems, which separates Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state in the international environment into a specific category in terms of corporate governance. This paper will analyze ownership concentration in order to identify the characteristics of the corporate governance systems, then it will present the principles on which the legal framework for corporate governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina is defined, compare the business transparency standards with the transparency directive in the EU, and measure the quality level of corporate governance in order to define key areas for improvement of corporate governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The development and characteristics of the corporate governance systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be explored and compared with the regulatory framework and standards of corporate governance in the European Union. Special emphasis is on comparing the transparency principles and standards of corporations in Bosnia and Herzegovina with corporations in the European Union. The aim of the research is to compare the regulatory framework and characteristics of the corporate governance system in corporations in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the standards in the European Union, to identify similarities and differences and to define key areas for improvement of corporate governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Moutinho ◽  
Carlos Francisco Alves ◽  
Francisco Martins

Purpose This study aims to analyse the effect of borrower’s countries on syndicated loan spreads, featuring countries according to institutional factors, namely, financial systems and corporate governance systems. Design/methodology/approach This study is an empirical investigation based on a unique sample of more than 85,000 syndicated loans from 122 countries. The paper uses standard and two-stage least squares regression analysis to test whether the types of financial and corporate governance systems affect loan spreads. Findings The paper finds that borrowers from countries with financial systems oriented towards the banking-based paradigm pay lower interest rate spreads than those from countries with financial systems oriented towards the market-based paradigm. In addition, there is evidence that borrowers from countries with more developed financial systems pay lower spreads. The results also show that borrowers from countries with an Anglo-Saxon governance system pay higher spreads than borrowers from countries with a Continental governance system. Research limitations/implications This study does not consider potential promiscuous relationships that can arise at the ownership structure and governance level between banks and borrowers and may affect loan spreads. Practical implications This study suggests that financial and corporate governance systems are essential factors in the financial intermediation process. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that corporates with higher potential agency costs and higher potential information asymmetry are requested to pay higher spreads. Therefore, the opportunities to such corporates invest optimally tend to be scarcer. Originality/value The paper highlights the impact of institutional factors on the cost of financing, characterising the countries according to the type of financial system and the type of corporate governance system. The study finds that borrowers from countries with bank-based financial systems pay lower interest rate spreads than those from countries with market-based financial systems. The paper also highlights how the level of financial development affects the cost of financing. The paper focusses on non-financial firms, unlike financial firms, which have been the focus of several empirical studies on topics relating to the cost of funding and corporate governance.


ORDO ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmar Gerum ◽  
Sascha H. Mölls

ZusammenfassungDas Ziel des Beitrages ist es zu prüfen, ob und inwieweit sich das deutsche Corporate Governance-System, insbesondere die Unternehmensfinanzierung, im Zuge des Systemwettbewerbs an internationale Standards angeglichen hat. Dazu wird das deutsche System zunächst im Kontext alternativer Corporate Governance-Systeme verortet. Danach werden empirische Befunde zur Struktur der Unternehmensfinanzierung sowie flankierender Institutionen in deutschen Großunternehmen präsentiert und erklärt. Es zeigt sich, dass heute eine effiziente Mischfinanzierung typisch ist, die die traditionellen Vorteile einer Bankenfinanzierung mit den Möglichkeiten des Kapitalmarkts kombiniert. Im Lichte der Befunde empfiehlt sich eine Neuorientierung von Forschung und Politik zu Corporate Governance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Chowdhury Saima Ferdous

This study investigates companies’ level of compliance with the Code of Corporate Governance for Bangladesh. Using a quantitative approach, it aims to understand the extent a regulatory provision can enhance the governance scenario of a company. It employed a survey methodology, with a questionnaire being sent to all 229 companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. The results of the multivariate analysis suggest that age, size, industry and type of company have a statistically positive correlation with the level of compliance with the Code provisions. The findings of the study indicate that listed companies are, on average, moderately compliant with the Code, and compliance is comparatively higher with the Code provisions that coincide with other regulatory provisions. The major theoretical contribution of this study is with its empirical evidence of the code compliance literature from a developing country perspective. Moreover the findings can be used as a guide to help develop policies for better implementation of good governance standards; the identification of areas of non-compliance are expected to help code formulators, regulators and also companies to understand why and where companies are falling behind in compliance with the Code.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1461-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Tylecote

Firms are central actors in innovation, and their actions are much affected by their corporate governance and the finance available. Thus a country's finance and corporate governance system is a key element of its national system of innovation. The technological regimes of sectors (and sub-sectors) vary in ways that affect the demands innovation makes on the financial and corporate governance system. Finance and corporate governance systems (FCGSs) vary among countries in their ability to meet these demands. By setting three dimensions of regime variation alongside the three corresponding dimensions of FCGS variation, patterns of relative and absolute technological advantage among economies can be largely explained — particularly when the focus is on nationality of firm rather than location of activity.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Huse

The objective of this paper is to explore important contingencies for boards and governance designs. The paper is made in a setting where governance in SMEs in transition economies is to be developed, and knowledge from advanced market economies constitutes the framework to be built on. The core of the paper is the presentation of six groups of important contextual variables that must be analyzed and understood when corporate governance systems shall be developed. The framework presented in the paper includes understanding the perspectives of both internal and external actors in the corporate governance process, and that the design of a governance system will include issues related the board working style as well as thee board members.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 721-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Venter

The Constitution of South Africa imposes a burden on municipalities to engage in local economic development. Municipal local economic development practitioners are often in doubt regarding the various mechanisms available to them to implement local economic development. This article provides insight into the processes and issues surrounding the use of an external mechanism (a private company owned by the municipality) as a local economic development agency. The lessons learnt from the Overstrand Local Economic Development Agency are compared with findings of an international study of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on 16 local economic development agencies. The article provides guidelines to local economic development practitioners to follow before, during and after the establishment of a local economic development agency.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  

After the recent global crisis, corporate scandals and bankruptcy in US and Europe, there is some certain evidence on weak corporate governance, risk management and audit system. The 2009 India Code of Corporate Governance also revealed that during the crisis time, there are certain weaknesses although corporate structure is fairly durable. Hence, this paper chooses a different analytical approach and among its aims is to give some systematic opinions. First, it classifies limited South Asian representative corporate governance (CG) standards into each group: India and Malaysia latest CG principles covered, so-called relative good CG group, while it uses ACCA and OECD and ICGN principles as reference. Second, it , through analysis, identifies differences and advantages between above set of standards which are and have been used as reference principles for many relevant organizations. Third, it establishes a selected comparative set of standards for South Asian representative corporate governance system in accordance to international standards. Last but not least, this paper covers some ideas and policy suggestions.


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