scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment of Portuguese Local Governments (2009 to 2017)

Author(s):  
Paula Gomes dos Santos ◽  
Carla Martinho

Public governance must ensure financial sustainability. This investigation aims to assess Portuguese local governments financial sustainability as the ability to service the upcoming obligations in commercial transactions (under the Late Payment Directive framework) and to study if accounting information enables public local governance with greater transparency and accountability about their financial sustainability. The study will focus on the 308 Portuguese local governments from 2009 to 2017. The number of local governments with average payment periods (PMPs) within 30 days had an increasing tendency. However, their adjusted average payment periods greatly exceed the 30 days, which means limited financial sustainability. In 2017, only 29% of the local governments have an adjusted PMP within 30 days against the 63% if it is used the officials PMPs. Therefore, accounting information does not enable public governance with greater transparency and accountability about Portuguese local government financial sustainability.

Author(s):  
Kayode J Samuel ◽  
Samuel B Agbola ◽  
Olorunfemi A Olojede

Local governance encompasses the involvement of local governments and other community-based organizations in participatory decision-making for efficient delivery of public services. In the developing world, however, the weakness of the local government and local governance has inhibited the efficient and effective delivery of these services. Relying on water and sanitation data and interviews of relevant officials, this study analyses the structure of governance of water supply and sanitation (WSS) at the community levels in selected medium-sized urban centres in Nigeria. Results showed that majority of the city dwellers lacked access to safe water and sanitation, an indication of convoluted, poorly regulated provision regimes and the waning capacity of local governments to galvanize local actions towards the efficient provision and management of these services at community levels. Multiple provision regimes, weak coordinating and regulatory frameworks characterize WSS governance. Further, the sub-national authorities’ encroachment on local government funds which deprived these tiers of government the resources they could have used in providing these essential services presents a major setback. Local governments require financial and constitutional autonomy to provide basic services to the people and supervise and coordinate the activities of other governmental and non-governmental actors involved in service provision.


Author(s):  
Peter Demediuk ◽  
Stephen Burgess ◽  
Rolf Solli

Local governance occurs where a local government gives citizens a say in things that really matter to them, and e-governance initiatives provide electronic means to enable citizens to participate in this shared governing of the community. The clearer a local government is about the nature and degree to which it needs to act as a democracy actor (better citizens and better government) and/or a service delivery actor (better decision making), the greater the prospect that it can choose appropriate electronic means through an e-governance approach to meet those ends. In order to guide an e-governance practice and inform further research, this chapter: provides models that articulate the elements that constitute better decision making, better citizens, and better government, and presents examples from five local governments of how electronic means can satisfy particular ends.


Author(s):  
Fabio De Matteis ◽  
Daniela Preite

After highlighting the breadth and complexity of the concept of sustainability and highlighting the role of local authorities in sustainable development, this chapter aims to interpret how sustainability management can consider the concept of financial sustainability in the context of local governments. It does this through the following specific objectives: 1) defining financial sustainability, considering it not only autonomously, but in an integrated manner with respect to the typical sustainability dimensions (environmental, social, and economic) that are usually involved in the local authorities activity; 2) proposing the main stages of the sustainability cycle in the local authorities to highlight the key moments and the role of financial sustainability; 3) analyzing some aspects of financial indicators as tools for measuring the financial side of the sustainability profile of a local government. In order to reach the aim of the chapter, the research methodology followed is the literature review.


Author(s):  
Moazzam Ali Janjua ◽  
Rainer Rohdewohld

In 2013 and 2019, the local government legislation of the province of Punjab in Pakistan saw two rounds of major changes – each of which led to a new local government Act being passed. In 2013 the changes were driven by constitutional and judicial requirements and in 2019 by the political will of Pakistan’s new coalition government. This article analyses and compares the functional assignment (FA) architecture of the two Acts against a set of parameters. The study finds that marginal improvements to the FA architecture introduced by the 2019 Act are offset by continuing inconsistencies and lack of clarity over ‘who does what’ in the functions assigned to local governments. The authors suggest that improving the functionality of local governments requires full implementation of the design features of the new system, including institutional strengthening of provincial-level entities which regulate and oversee the local government system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Khandakar Farid Uddin

Bangladesh has a history of political unrest and supremacy of the ruling party. Recently, representatives of the local government were suspended for being accused in cases of political violence. The ruling party is defining the suspensions as a legal process; on the contrary, the opposition political parties are claiming it as political hostility and a way of controlling local governments. There are shortages of research on contemporary political challenges and its consequences. Thus, this study considered local government representative suspensions as a case to exemplify the political hostility and local government crisis in Bangladesh. This study also demonstrated some theoretical points to frame the conceptual thoughts, likewise explained the status and some historical illustration of governmental intrusion over local government. Besides, this study applied the qualitative method to discover the research queries. Consequently, the analysis outlined substantial political supremacy and hostility in Bangladesh and its adverse impact on local governance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Widjonarko - ◽  
Brotosunaryo

The Sustainable Capacity Building for Decentralization (SCBD) project funded by the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) aimed to strengthen the capacity of local governments in Indonesia.Banjarnegara Regency was selected by the ministry of internal affairs for the implementation ofthe project. The SCBD Project in Banjarnegara consists of five components including frameworkof capacity building, institutional capacity building, human resources management, humanresources development and sustainable financial and budgeting. This project will is held in fiveyears using two funding schemes phases, donor funded the first 3 years (2009‐2011), thencontinued by the local government of Banjarnegara. During the 2009‐2011period, the projecthas finished all five components, PMU then conducted evaluation to ensure achievement of theSCBD’s main goal: strengthening local governance for delivering good public services. The expostevaluation method used to evaluate the SCBD Project for short term outcomes found thatthe project hasn’t directly improved the public services performance even having completed allfive components of the project. Most people in Banjarnegara Regency felt no significantimprovement of public services provided by the government. The ineffectiveness of publicservices can be understood, because not all of the components of the SCBD project had beenthoroughly implemented at local government level. Moreover, many activities of the projecttend to overlap implying lack of coordination among the project implementation units.Key words: evaluation, SCBD


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 873-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tudor Cristian Ticlau ◽  
Bogdan Andrei Moldovan ◽  
Cristina Maria Hintea

The European Charter on Local Self-government is a defining document for local governments across the EU and was a guideline for developing a framework of local governance based on local autonomy, decentralization that is close to the citizens. It was especially important for Central and East European Countries as they faced the challenges of a total overhaul of their administrative systems after the fall of the communist regimes. Romania fits into this picture as a late comer to the European family, with an administrative system that transitioned slowly from a hyper centralized arrangement to one that offers significant power to local governments. After 20 years since the ratification of the Charter, local government in Romania displays mixed elements, between progressive (protection of local authorities) and conservative (consultation of authorities, financial autonomy) in relation to the charter recommendations. The current article is an analysis on the state of affairs concerning local governance in Romania using the Charter as the main theoretical framework.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-234
Author(s):  
Evi Maria ◽  
Abdul Halim

This article explores public governance impact on the corruption’s probability in Indonesian local government practices. The research employs data of Indonesian local governments in 2012. Data were analyzed using logistic regression. The study results found that good public governance has a negative effect on corruptio’s probability. The results of this research conclude that the greater public governance index, the less the local government’s engagement in corruption. The results are rugged when area type is added as control variable. Area type do not affect the corruption’s probability in Indonesian local governments. This study found good public governance decreases the asymmetry of information between agents and principals, so that the opportunity to commit corruption are reduced. Improvement of public governance can be done by implementing e-Government to supervise the implementation of government activities and public services in local government, Indonesia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-712
Author(s):  
A.N.M. Zakir Hossain

The study aims to identify the role of local government and its transformation in response to the COVID-19. It also shows how local governments extended the scope of accountability and transparency to strengthen democracy. The study followed the social survey method and collected data online through Google Docs form. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics to generate expected results and test the hypothesis by the Spearman correlation coefficient. The study found local governments were positive during COVID-19 to provide services and offered more public engagement in policy formulation, thus more democratic. The health sector has shown the highest priority, with food and environmental services. Inefficient management capacity of leaders and apathy in public engagement hamper resource mobilization at the local level. During COVID-19, ICT intervention and innovation for digital transformation in local governance increased accountability and transparency through easy and effective participation of mass people to strengthen local democracy to respond effectively against COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 96-106
Author(s):  
Gede Adi Yuniarta ◽  
I Gusti Ayu Purnamawati

Transparency is a challenge for public administration reforms for now and beyond towards modern and better governance. The economic crisis that occurred has led to a large erosion of public confidence in the effectiveness of government financial management. This study aims to analyze the key elements of local government transparency in new public governance. The research data was obtained through financial reports on local government websites. The sample selection technique used purposive judgment sampling and yielded a total of 262 local governments in Indonesia. The analytical method used is logistic regression analysis. The results showed that key elements, reflected by the local government size and local financial independence ratio, had a significant influence on the implementation of internet financial reporting, while audit opinions do not have a significant effect. This is due to changes in public perception of the quality of audit opinions provided by the Audit Board. This study emphasizes that local governments that receive a fair or unfair audit opinion cannot prove with certainty that the local government has performed good or poor financial management. Audit opinions obtained by local governments do not always facilitate the publication of financial statements on their official websites.


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