Financial Accountability & Management最新文献

This paper introduces the special issue on accounting and accountability for the digital transformation of public services. Papers in special issues offer different perspectives on how digital technologies affect performance management, considering the challenges and opportunities that arise when digital data are collected and translated into a set of measures, the complexity of relying on these digital data to enhance transparency and accountability, and the organizational implications of digital data when used to support public-sector decision makers in a variety of activities, such as auditing or benchmarking.

Governments are becoming digital; however, a shift toward digital transformation may not always occur voluntarily. For example, despite their willingness or skills, local government accountants are usually forced to adopt a digital innovation to comply with requirements from top-down public financial management reforms—a typical case of compulsory digital transformation. We observe local government accountants’ attitudes toward compulsory digital transformation and their effects on the comprehensiveness of the digital transformation linked to accounting reforms in place. We empirically analyzed the public financial management oversight function in Brazil, in which digitalization requires local government accountants to report financial information to external authorities via computerized tools. Relying on interviews and an open-ended survey with local government accountants, our findings revealed how Brazilian government accountants deal with compulsory digital transformation in the context of task overload. Most of the accountants present a resigned posture in which they opt to comply with the oversight authorities’ deadlines at the expense of reductions in the reported data's accuracy. However, other accountants assume a visionary posture by adopting a transformative attitude and turning the mandatory digital transformation to their advantage to favor a broader reformist agenda. The implications of such a scenario are discussed.

Performance auditing (PA) has undergone relevant evolutions in recent decades, attracting considerable interest from academics and practitioners alike, in terms of its emergence, evolution, transformation, and outcomes in various international contexts. Through a systematic review of the literature published over the past five decades, totaling 125 papers, this study maps the existing knowledge on PA and recommends avenues for future research. Based on the analysis of the selected articles, the paper identifies and discusses the main themes emerging from the literature, including the scope and evolution of PA; the two faces of PA (accountability and performance improvement); the tensions and contradictions of influence and independence of PA; and unintended consequences and conflicts of PA. Considering the synthesis of the literature and current issues in public administration, the paper highlights themes that warrant further research, including the PA implications of digitalization and emerging technologies, the potential for widening accountability, PA's connections with media, and the relevance of PA in a risk management perspective. The paper also offers insights into the potential of international and comparative approaches to research on PA issues.

The fiscal governance framework includes the rules and regulations that discipline the preparation, approval, and implementation of public budgets. It results from the power struggle of the actors that participate in the process of allocating public resources. Despite relevant studies published on the subject, this study aimed to provide background information on determinant factors in the choice and effects of fiscal governance framework adopted by governments in the scholarly conversation. For this, the systematic literature review method was adopted with the development of five steps: selecting a review topic, searching the literature, gathering, reading, and analyzing the scientific papers published in the last 10 years on the subject. Results show that fiscal crises and pressures and rewards of external bodies were the preponderant factors for reforms in the framework of fiscal governance adopted by governments. In another view, impacts of this framework on national public finances were investigated primarily by analysis of numerical fiscal rules. The research gaps identified indicate directions for future research.

This study investigates the roles of informal gatekeepers in the context of First Nations health care in Canada. While existing literature focuses on gatekeeping by professionals, such as corporate board members, auditors, general practitioners, and specialists, we present empirical evidence on the role of informal First Nations’ gatekeepers in a health care system. Gatekeepers engage with government and First Nations along a continuum of gatekeeping functions. Drawing on common pool theory, we use a case study to understand the gatekeepers’ roles. We identify First Nations gatekeepers’ roles to include health care program control, resource control, and ecosystem control. We also find that these gatekeepers constitute a viable long-enduring common pool resource institution that can be useful for the federal government's phased approach in transitioning health care governance to the First Nations.

This paper offers a systematic reflection on accountability research in accounting literature. It shows the dynamic relationships and networks between the construction of accountability research, academics, and accounting journals. The research involves a systematic review of accountability literature in selected accounting journals, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Drawing on Bourdieu's relational sociology for its theoretical and methodological frameworks, the paper constructs a socioanalysis of academic and intellectual capital by categorizing various positions and reputations in relation to accountability scholarship in the field of accounting. It finds that a subtle process of position taking works in both symbolic and material ways through citing and being cited by key authors in this cultural field. The paper develops a general but sociopolitical theoretical approach to the field study of accountability in accounting. The doxa of accountability reflects the cultural capital and the way in which doxa of the accounting field is recognized and valued. The paper argues that the process of cultural production is a dialectic sociopolitical process, which influences authors’ reflections and choices and at the same time is influenced by the network of authors and journals.

This paper explores the impact of neoliberalism on Australia's public higher education system. It examines flaws in the university system revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies how the conditions created by neoliberal policies have limited universities' capacity to respond to a crisis. The paper reviews the previous literature on universities, neoliberalism policies, and new public management practices. It uses data from the literature, newspapers, and contemporary documents to shape an overview of the Australian public sector university system up to 2021 and its transformation by stealth. The impact of this transformation has been a heavy reliance on international onshore student fees to fund operations, infrastructure, and research activities. COVID-19-related public health measures have caused a significant downturn in the number of international students studying in Australia, in turn, creating a financial crisis that has seen many tens of thousands of university staff losing their jobs and courses being cut. The transformation has also seen accountingization of both individual academic and university performance to become the norm. The quantified performance metrics associated with accountingization have become universities' new language, and their goal displaced ends. Revenue generation and expenditure has been privileged over making a contribution to the nation and society. We call for a radical rethinking of the public sector university mission for the ultimate benefit of the Australian community.

The COVID-19 pandemic put governments under pressure to make radical and urgent decisions, and to implement new digital solutions to steer society and deliver public services. Our study analyzes social media discourse to understand the co-production of a digital public service in an emergency situation. Empirically, we mobilize Twitter netnography and discourse analysis to examine citizens’ perceptions of the contact tracing app (CTA) introduced by the UK government to tackle the pandemic and save lives. Our study contributes to research on public sector accountability for digital transformations by advancing scholarly understanding of how societal concerns and public perceptions impact the co-production of digital services. Our findings reveal a high level of public skepticism toward the app and a general distrust of the UK government among the main social challenges of the CTA's implementation. Furthermore, we evidence widespread public distress over the potential violation of democratic freedoms and misuse of the data collected by the app. Finally, we reflect on the linkages between the lack of governmental accountability and the difficulties in mitigating the expressed societal concerns, causing a corresponding resistance on the part of the public to engage in and support co-production.

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of stakeholder participation within the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board's (IPSASB) due process. This study examines IPSASB's input legitimacy by analysing who the respondents are in exposure draft (ED) 63, Social Benefits, and to what extent they support the ED; however, the emphasis lies on the quality of the IPSASB's due process through the legitimacy theory, more precisely procedural legitimacy, by investigating to what extent the respondents’ input was considered and integrated into the final International Public Sector Accounting Standards. Most respondents originate from Europe and Oceania and consist of professional associations and public sector entities. There are indications that some respondents’ input was integrated; however, results indicate a clear flaw in the lack of transparency regarding how respondents’ input is analysed, which makes the decision-making process seem arbitrary and subjective and could potentially have a negative effect on the IPSASB's legitimacy.