scholarly journals Public Financial Management, Accountability, and Citizens’ Trust

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-405
Author(s):  
Anto Bajo ◽  
Marko Primorac ◽  
Dario Runtić
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Early Recognition ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
The European Union ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Government Level

The main goal of the paper is to determine opportunities for the application of analytical tools to improve the management of state and local finances and increase the accountability and trust of citizens in state and local self-government units. PEFA is a useful tool for meeting such goals. PEFA is used on a global scale, primarily in countries that are beneficiaries of international aid, but also increasingly in countries that seek to increase their international credibility as well as their credibility regarding financial management in the eyes of their citizens. In the case of Croatia, PEFA was used in four cities in 2014. The implementation experience shows that PEFA allowed local government units to detect key weaknesses and technical shortcomings in their financial management, as well as to recognize the shortcomings of the provisions of certain regulations implemented at central government level. PEFA is an analytical tool that can be applied both at the national (central government) level and at the level of local self-government units. PEFA is certainly a demanding analytical tool which makes previous knowledge on financial management, budget accounting, and auditing more than desirable. For all European countries likely to join the European Union and finance part of their capital investments through EU funds, PEFA can be a very useful tool not only for the early recognition of weaknesses, but also strengths in financial management. Despite the fact that PEFA does not offer direct instructions on how to solve potential problems in financial management, the findings of the analysis with the accompanying rankings are more than sufficient to serve as recommendations for addressing weaknesses in financial management. The implementation of PEFA requires strong support of the heads of local units and the state. These are also the people expected to initiate reforms and improve financial management. As an analytical tool, PEFA can help these improvements happen much faster and more effectively.

Regional Development Agencies in Turkey on the Scope of Governance and Local Elites: An Evaluation after 10-years-experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-394
Author(s):  
Uğur Sadioğlu ◽  
Kadir Dede ◽  
Volkan Göçoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Regional Development ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
Central Government Agencies

Under the influence of globalization and the European Union membership accession process, important administrative reform initiatives have been taken in Turkey in the 2000s in the framework of economic, social, political, cultural and technological needs. In this process, central government agencies and administrations, public financial management, local governments and similar public organizations have undergone important transitions. The most important initiative taken to achieve regional governance is the establishment of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). The present study performs a 10-year longitudinal analysis of RDAs in Turkey in the context of governance and local elites. The first phase of the study was conducted in 2010, and the second phase was conducted in 2019. The aim of the study is to evaluate whether RDAs have realized their potential in local democracy, sustainable development and decentralization, as well as to define the characteristics of policies to be pursued in line with further development of these agencies. Consequently, it has been observed that maintaining a centralized state tradition, along with institutional deficiencies, has transformed RDAs into an apparatus of the central government.

An Empirical Study of the Financial Mismanagement of Internally Generated Revenue in Ife South Local Government of Osun State, Nigeria

Think India ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Adeola Ajayi
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Revenue Generation ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level ◽  
Descriptive Statistical Analysis

This study focused on financial mismanagement of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in Ife South Local Government. It also identified viable sources of revenue in the local government and examined problems militating against effective collection of revenue. This study was necessitated by the need to ensure increased revenue generation in Ife South local government of Osun State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary sources of data were utilized for the study. The primary data were collected through structured questionnaires. Respondents were selected from career officers in GL. 03-16 in departments and units of finance and supplies, administration, primary healthcare, agriculture, town planning and estate valuation of the local government, thus 180 respondents were sampled representing 29.31% of 614 staff strength of these departments and units of the local government. The questionnaires were administered using descriptive statistical analysis such as frequency and percentage value. The study revealed that there are many viable and non-viable sources of revenue in Ife South local government, the myriad of problems militating against effective collection of the revenue and the poor financial management of internally generated revenue which aptly explains why the local government could not be developed. The study concluded that the share of local government from the statutory allocation be increased, routine auditing and post-auditing from the supervising ministry should be encouraged at the local government level and that the local government should also intensify her effort on increase revenue generation in order to withstand the challenges posed by the current global economic crisis.

Policy Refiners and Street-Level Lesson Learners

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Stark
Keyword(s):  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Central Level ◽  
Government Level ◽  
Inquiry Lesson

This chapter explores agents who are influential in terms of inquiry lesson-learning but have not been examined before in inquiry literature. The key argument is that two types of agent—policy refiners and street-level bureaucrats—are important when it comes to the effectiveness of post-crisis lesson-learning. As they travel down from the central government level, street-level actors champion, reinterpret, and reject inquiry lessons, often because those lessons do not consider local capacities. Policy refiners, however, operate at the central level in the form of taskforces, implementation reviews, and policy evaluation processes. These refiners examine potentially problematic inquiry lessons in greater detail in order to determine whether and how they should be implemented. In doing so, these ‘mini-inquiries’ can reformulate or even abandon inquiry recommendations.

scholarly journals Modelling the European Union Sustainability Transition: A Soft-Linking Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6303
Author(s):  
Andrea M. Bassi ◽  
Valeria Costantini ◽  
Elena Paglialunga
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Intrinsic Complexity

The European Green Deal (EGD) is the most ambitious decarbonisation strategy currently envisaged, with a complex mix of different instruments aiming at improving the sustainability of the development patterns of the European Union in the next 30 years. The intrinsic complexity brings key open questions on the cost and effectiveness of the strategy. In this paper we propose a novel methodological approach to soft-linking two modelling tools, a systems thinking (ST) and a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, in order to provide a broader ex-ante policy evaluation process. We use ST to highlight the main economic feedback loops the EGD strategy might trigger. We then quantify these loops with a scenario analysis developed in a dynamic CGE framework. Our main finding is that such a soft-linking approach allows discovery of multiple channels and spillover effects across policy instruments that might help improve the policy mix design. Specifically, positive spillovers arise from the adoption of a revenue recycling mechanism that ensures strong support for the development and diffusion of clean energy technologies. Such spillover effects benefit not only the European Union (EU) market but also non-EU countries via trade-based technology transfer, with a net positive effect in terms of global emissions reduction.

Performance of a points-based scoring system for assessing species limits in birds

The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A Tobias ◽  
Paul F Donald ◽  
Rob W Martin ◽  
Stuart H M Butchart ◽  
Nigel J Collar
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Training Set ◽  
Species Limits ◽  
Phenotypic Data ◽  
Fast Tracking ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Phenotypic Divergence

AbstractSpecies are fundamental to biology, conservation, and environmental legislation; yet, there is often disagreement on how and where species limits should be drawn. Even sophisticated molecular methods have limitations, particularly in the context of geographically isolated lineages or inadequate sampling of loci. With extinction rates rising, methods are needed to assess species limits rapidly but robustly. Tobias et al. devised a points-based system to compare phenotypic divergence between taxa against the level of divergence in sympatric species, establishing a threshold to guide taxonomic assessments at a global scale. The method has received a mixed reception. To evaluate its performance, we identified 397 novel taxonomic splits from 328 parent taxa made by application of the criteria (in 2014‒2016) and searched for subsequent publications investigating the same taxa with molecular and/or phenotypic data. Only 71 (18%) novel splits from 60 parent taxa have since been investigated by independent studies, suggesting that publication of splits underpinned by the criteria in 2014–2016 accelerated taxonomic decisions by at least 33 years. In the evaluated cases, independent analyses explicitly or implicitly supported species status in 62 (87.3%) of 71 splits, with the level of support increasing to 97.2% when excluding subsequent studies limited only to molecular data, and reaching 100% when the points-based criteria were applied using recommended sample sizes. Despite the fact that the training set used to calibrate the criteria was heavily weighted toward passerines, splits of passerines and non-passerines received equally strong support from independent research. We conclude that the method provides a useful tool for quantifying phenotypic divergence and fast-tracking robust taxonomic decisions at a global scale.

Incomplete Fiscal Decentralisation: An Impediment for Local Economic Development in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-105
Author(s):  
Audrey Smock Amoah ◽  
Imoro Braimah ◽  
Theresa Yaba Baah-Ennumh
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Fiscal Decentralisation ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

For the past three decades Ghana’s democratic decentralisation policy has sought in vein to establish a local government system capable of pursuing Local Economic Development (LED). One of the major impediments has been the insincere implementation of fiscal decentralisation for the local government to provide the enabling environment for LED. This paper employed primary and secondary data from the Wassa East District Assembly (WEDA) to assess the progress so far in Ghana’s fiscal decentralisation and its effect on LED. The paper highlights the potential benefits of LED and the incapacitation of the District Assembly by the Central government for LED financing. The paper again reveals the effects of the constraints of fiscal decentralisation on LED at the local government level and makes policy recommendations towards effective fiscal decentralisation for improvement in LED.

scholarly journals Language planning and language ideologies in Guernsey

Multilingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-111
Author(s):  
Julia Sallabank
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
English Channel ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Collective Identification ◽  
Epistemic Stance ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Strategic Direction ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Government Level

Abstract The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a small, semi-autonomous archipelago in the English Channel. Although it is a British Crown dependency and part of the British Isles, it has its own parliament and does not belong to the United Kingdom or the European Union. This unusual geopolitical situation means that the nation-state has little relevance. It is only recently that the indigenous former vernacular has been accorded any worth, at either grass-roots or government level: as its vitality declines (increasingly rapidly), its perceived value for individual and collective identification has grown. Although public opinion overtly supports indigenous language maintenance, and increasing its vitality is a stated aim (e.g., a government Language Commission was announced in 2012), effective top-down measures to increase the number and fluency of speakers appear to be low on the agenda. This article explores the implications of this socio-political background for language policy. It discusses language-related activities which reveal a lack of ideological clarification and strategic direction at all levels, compounded by issues of control, epistemic stance and language ownership.

The Unanticipated Consequences of Decentralization and Reinvention: The Case of the Province of South Holland

2002 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Yesilkagit ◽  
J. de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Public Administrators ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
Central Government Agencies

Two developments flowing from the institutional reforms in The Netherlands of the 1980s currently form ‘the usual suspects’ in a series of scandals or instances of public arousal within the public sector. The first factor is the large-scale decentralization of tasks from central government to provincial and municipal authorities. Initiated under the name of democratization and efficiency this decentralization programme was part of a large package of operations, including deconcentration, deregulation, privatization, and reconsideration, that were to to slim down central government in terms of personnel, tasks and organization. Second, managerialism, i.e. the adoption of business management ideas and concepts by public administrators, entered Dutch public service vocabulary during the second half of the 1980s. Managerialism did not limit itself only to central government agencies but also — and perhaps more succinctly — found openings in provincial and municipal authorities, mainly as a fierce reaction against the ‘bureaucratism’ of daily administrative practice to counter the relative deprivation perceived by civil servants in relation to their private sector counterparts. This article shows that the decentralization of financial management and the emergence of ‘reinvention’ ideas have had autonomous but drastic effects. While the former blinded central government and provincial controllers, the latter legitimized practices that even under a private sector regime would have been deemed improbable.

scholarly journals A Cultural Governance Coalition in Regeneration. A Case Study of Historical Quanzhou City

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
Shuxiang Cai
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Common Path

Compared with the gradual and long exploration processes typical of European and American countries, China experienced a period marked by extremely high-speed modernisation and urbanisation, following the Land Reform. This is exemplified by a great number of urban reconstruction projects which have changed the traditional fabric of most cities. Yet, following the trend of cultural consumption since the late 1990s, numerous integrated restoration projects for historic districts were implemented to promote tourism as a promising industry to sustain economic growth. As a consequence of growth-oriented urban entrepreneurship, public spaces in these historic urban areas have also been perceptibly privatised. To a large extent, the capital and the authority of the local government directs the future prospect of the historic urban landscape in Chinese cities. On the other hand, development-oriented urban construction stimulates a rise in awareness of the need for protection strategies to conserve historic urban fabric. On a global scale, the public sector has begun to introspect on urban governance under the spirit of entrepreneurship. The urban renewal has now been extended to urban regeneration and the previous public-private partnership has been substituted with a multi-sectoral cooperative model. In recent years, the Chinese central government has proposed the core concept of “Seeing people, Seeing things, Seeing life”, which is re-orientated towards historic-city regeneration as a way of promoting “Micro-renewal and Micro-disturbance”. Among such activities, the use of exhibitions as a strategy for simultaneous spatial transformation and activation has gradually formed a common path, encouraging many cities to regenerate historic urban areas. This article is based on on this reorientation, taking Quanzhou as an example, making a critical observation on the new form of public space it has produced, and digs into the operational mechanism behind it as well as the possibility for publicness.

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