Funded by taxation, public spending cannot be separated from politics and ensuring efficiency and effectiveness is always high on the political and policy agenda. Accounting, accountability, governance and auditing are essential ingredients in evaluating public sector performance. Australia and New Zealand are world leaders when it comes to public sector accounting-such as being the first to introduce transaction-neutral accounting standards. This edited collection considers current issues impacting the public sector by primarily drawing upon experiences of Australia and New Zealand. Then, by combining history (from the time of the Domesday book, early sovereignty and Shakespeare) with current practice (differential reporting, international financial reporting standards, government performance, voter turnout, joined-up government and auditing practices), we use these experiences to illuminate the global issues of public sector accounting, accountability and governance. Based on rigorous research by top public sector researchers, this edited collection offers a multitude of future research ideas to enable those interested in following this pathway-whether they are in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America, Africa or anywhere else in the world-an avenue to traverse.

The current degradation of sovereign balance sheets raises very real concerns about how sovereign creditworthiness is measured by credit rating agencies. Given the disastrous economic and social effects of any downgrade, the book offers an alternative and calls for more transparency about the quantitative measures used in calibrating the rating process and how sovereign ratings are validated. It argues that oversight is required and procedures improved, including subjecting methodologies of assessing default to more standardization and monitoring. Sovereign Credit Rating explains the process of sovereign creditworthiness assessment and explores the consequences of possible inaccuracies in the process. Developing an innovative new methodology to assess ratings accuracy, it shows that the announcement of each rating action by the major credit rating agencies show alarming inconsistencies. Written by an internationally recognized author and professor, this unique book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in corporate governance, accounting, public finance and regulation.

Over time we have seen large corporations, in many cases with multinational operations, begin to play an increasingly significant role in modern society. This in turn has put the governance of these corporations into focus. Against this background, Corporate Governance in Action helps provide a framework for examining corporate governance through a focus provided by external pressures on large corporations. It also brings together the approach of economics and finance with theories in organization studies, such as aspects of resource dependency theory. This framework takes into consideration not only the market relations of modern corporations but also their dependence on regulators and different kind of scrutinizers. This thoughtful book is a complete research guide that provides a new understanding and applicable framework for advanced students, academics and researchers in the area of corporate governance and the related disciplines.

Appropriate laws and regulations are essential tools to direct the action of procurers toward the public good and avoid corruption and misallocation of resources. Common laws and regulations across regions, nations and continents potentially allow for the further opening of markets and ventures to newcomers and new ideas to satisfy public demand. Law and Economics of Public Procurement Reforms collects the original contributions related to the new European Union Directives approved in 2014 by the EU Parliament. They are of both economists and lawyers, and have been presented in a manner that allows for exchanges of views and "real time" interaction. This book features, for each section, an introductory exchange between two experts of different disciplines, made up of a series of sequential interactions between an economist and a lawyer, which enriches the liveliness of the debate and improve the mutual understanding between the two professions. Four sections characterize this book: Supporting social considerations via public procurement; Green public procurement; Innovation through innovative partnerships; and Lots - The Economic and Legal Challenges of Centralized Procurement. These themes have current relevance of the new European Public Procurement Directives. Written by an impressive array of experts in their respected fields, this volume is of great importance to practitioners who work in the field of EU public procurement in the Member States of the EU, as well as academics and students who study public finance, public policy and regulation.

This book seeks to enhance understanding of the impacts of project setup and its implementation environment on project performance by leveraging information from the study of a rich set of European transport infrastructure project cases. It puts forward a system's view of project delivery and aims to serve as a strategic tool for decision makers and practitioners. The proposed approach is not limited to specific stakeholder views. On the contrary, it allows stakeholders to formulate their own strategies based on an holistic set of potential implementation scenarios. Furthermore, by including cases of projects that have been influenced by the recent financial crisis, the book aims to capitalise on experiences and provide guidelines as to the design and implementation of resilient projects delivered both through traditional as well as Public Private Partnership (PPP) models. Finally, the book proposes a new Transport Infrastructure Resilience Indicator and a corresponding project rating system that can be assessed with an eye to the future, ultimately aiming to support the successful delivery of transport infrastructure projects for all stakeholders involved.

In this time of acute financial pressure on public budgets, there is an increasing interest worldwide in alternative ways for governments to raise money, and how public authorities can develop the capacity to administer revenues efficiently and effectively. Taxation, the primary source of public revenue, is exposed to various threats, while alternative sources of public revenues have much potential but are rarely carefully designed and harnessed. Public Sector Revenue: Principles, Policies and Management sets itself apart from other textbooks through its exclusive focus on the revenue side of public financial management. It provides the reader with the theoretical foundations and practical tools to understand the generation and management of revenues in the public sector, and it weaves a wide range of international examples throughout the text. Students will also benefit from a companion website with supplements including test questions and answers to the end-of-chapter discussion questions inside the book. This textbook will be essential reading for students, managers and policymakers within the areas of public financial management, public sector accounting and public administration.

Contract and procurement fraud, collusion, and corruption are worldwide problems. Such wrongdoing causes federal, state, and local governments, as well as private-sector corporations and businesses, to lose funds and profits, while the wrongdoers unjustly benefit. Bid riggers conspire to eliminate fair and open competition and unjustly increase prices, allowing some to monopolize industries. Too often, contracting officials and others responsible for placing orders or awarding contracts compromise their integrity and eliminate fair and open competition to favor vendors offering bribes or gifts. This results in unfair playing fields for vendors and causes financial losses for businesses, government agencies, and taxpayers. Charles Piper's Contract and Procurement Fraud and Corruption Investigation Guidebook educates readers on fraud and corruption schemes that occur before, during, and after contracts are awarded. This book teaches not only how to identify such wrongdoing, but also how to investigate it and prevent reoccurrence. Piper shares the Piper Method of Conducting Thorough and Complete Investigations, his innovative and proven method of investigating contract and procurement fraud, and demonstrates its principles with personal, on-the-job examples (which he calls "War Stories") woven throughout the text. Intended for criminal justice students, as well as investigators, auditors, examiners, business owners, policy-makers, and other professionals potentially affected by fraud, this book is a must-read guide to effective procurement and contract fraud investigations from inception to testimony.

Continuing the search for greater reflectivity regarding accounting's role in society, this volume identifies the many ways accounting contributes to knowledge creation and the consequences in socio-economic realms. Accounting practice has always been concerned with fraud, legitimacy and trust. One might speculate an essential premise behind the audit of publicly held corporations is potential management deception, and thus a raison d'etre for accounting and accountability. In this volume researchers, exploring themes of deception: examine financial statement manipulation in the decade after Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), consider internal control impacts on earnings management, deliberate on the usefulness of audit opinions, and contemplate tax evasion practices and their antecedents. In contextualizing the public interest these researchers contemplate cultural distinctions, conflicts of interest, regulation, and the dynamic interfaces and divides between practitioners and academics. Envisioning the facilitation of overall enhancement of the broad community, recommendations for increasing the quality of communication between scholars and professionals is deliberated. Contributing as well to the undeniable concern for broad environmental degradation, the role of the discipline in maintaining the status quo is challenged. Rather, accounting's characterization of accountability should include attributes of socio-environmental destruction: complexity, uncertainty and diffused responsibility. These emergent accounts would inform the journey of constructing more representative accounts of technological degradation. Such imaginative emancipatory accounting would enhance decision- making, develop social well-being, and unfold new forms of knowledge and possibilities.

Ethics in Fiscal Administration: An Introduction integrates ethics into the public administration curriculum by weaving ethical dilemmas into the financial management and budgeting process of the public and nonprofit sectors. Inquiry-based discussion prompts challenge students to examine scenarios that they are likely to encounter in professional public service careers. Critics of the public sector often use the analogy that government should be run more like a business. Issues such as profitability versus social value preclude the public sector from becoming a mirror image of the private sector; however, ethical decision making in fiscal administration is an important concern across sectors. Using examples drawn from the public and nonprofit arenas, Ethics in Fiscal Administration: An Introduction will help prepare future budget managers and other public administrators for the important work of upholding the public financial trust.

Global forces and accountability once again converge in this volume, illustrating the significant and multifaceted nature of the role of accounting in societies. The accounting discipline in its numbers, its silences, its privileging of select classifications over others, it is continually constructing knowledge, cultivates meaning, and impacts public policy in the intersection of socio-political-economic realms. The research in this volume responds to calls for examining accounting as an interdisciplinary role in neoliberal governance by examining migration, race, gender, class and the creation of the 'other'. Each paper uniquely contributes toward significantly exploring accounting's role in disenfranchising populations while identifying participants actualized and potential role in emancipatory struggles. By recognizing marginalized groups embedded power rather than casting them as victims, the authors reject an inevitability of widening inequalities and forms of violence to world populations. Rather these critical accounting researchers seriously tackle the task of transformation, providing pathways for thinking differently and aspiring for change.

As researchers reveal the increasing complexities of accounting practices in emerging economies, there is a growing need for an overview of the topic. The Routledge Companion to Accounting in Emerging Economies is a prestige work offering an introduction to current scholarship in the field, with indications of future directions for enhancing the contribution to knowledge. With regional coverage of key emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, the team of contributors analyse issues in accounting in detail, while shedding light on the role of the accounting profession in providing accountability and governance across the developing world. Each chapter is headed up by an internationally recognised author who is a leading expert in designing and implementing research approaches to the topic. Within the team of authors, some are experienced senior contributors while others are developing new avenues of exploration on the basis of high-quality doctoral study. This range of author experience has been deliberately chosen to allow the reader to envisage working in such a team while growing in confidence. This unique reference offers a comprehensive guide to advanced students, academics, practitioners and policy makers on the current state of, and potential developments in, accounting in developing economies globally. This work will be of particular interest to students and researchers looking to identify topics in emerging economies, academics and practitioners seeking convenient access to an unfamiliar area, and established researchers seeking a single repository on the current state of knowledge, current debates and relevant literature.

Public Sector Accounting uses an integrated approach to the study of public sector accounting by linking accounting theory and practice for each of the main areas of financial accounting, management accounting and auditing. Examples from a range of Public Sector experiences are woven into the text to illustrate the issues involved. The introduction of the book reflects managerial developments in the public sector, by giving a brief history of these in the UK and internationally then commenting on the adoption of quality assurance in the public sector. The management accounting section discusses developments in the use of internal markets and compulsory competition and the more recent emphasis on public-private partnership and performance indicators and also explains the techniques of programme and zero-based budgeting and investment appraisal. The financial accounting section updates and internationalises the discussion of financial accounting theory and regulation. The final section of the book is on auditing has been updated with UK and international developments.

This volume aims to contribute to the substance of this debate by looking at how the NPM ideas have been conceptualised, implemented and affected the accounting, accountability and auditing practices in emerging economies characterised by different ideologies, economic, social and political factors. The NPM-led furore, based on the assumption of a leaner public sector, has hit the emerging economies; the outcomes of this in emerging economies have not yet been either researched or hugely publicised. In accounting, studies that relate and appreciate the history and its ideological significance are under-emphasized; henceforth this issue bridges the gap and focuses on studies that historically examine the development of accounting, accountability and auditing in the emerging economies, pre-and post NPM.

Giving voice to the marginalized, broadly defined, is the aim of this volume in its examination of social life increasingly marked by global inequality and the extension of market rationalities to all arenas. Revealing the outcome to populations, stakeholders, and the environment when policies resting on narrowly constrained logics are employed, these researchers lead the way in probing accountings participation in significant struggles of our times. In order to better appreciate the consequences of economic globalization, the works examine contemporary rhetoric, governance, politics, and strategies and the manner in which accounting technologies are integrated. These works maintain that transformation is inevitable and they search for possibilities of change that can be manifested in socially equitable practices and improved social justice by enhancing accountability.

Public finance is crucial to a country's economic growth, yet successful reform of public finances has been rare. Ethiopia is an example of a country that undertook comprehensive reform of its core financial systems, independent of the IMF and the World Bank, and successfully transformed itself into one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. With Ethiopia's twelve-year reform as its guiding case study, this book presents new analytical frameworks to help governments develop better financial reforms. It shows in detail how four core financial systems-budgeting, accounting, planning, and financial information systems-can be reformed. One of the principal findings presented is that governments must establish basic public financial administration before moving to more sophisticated public financial management. Other key findings include the identification of four strategies of reform (recognize, improve, change, and sustain), the centrality of ongoing learning to the process of reform, and the importance of government ownership of reform. This book will be of interest to researchers and policymakers concerned with public finance, developmental economics, and African studies.

No greater issue than the relationship between ethics, equity, and regulation can be said to have emerged in these 'troubled times'. How can we account for continuing inequalities in an era promoting enlightened social and economic connections? What mechanisms of perceptions and politics will enable policy makers and scholars to advance significant progressive change? This volume offers diverse research examining accounting's contribution to these challenges given the profession's multifaceted roles. Authors scrutinize executive compensation packages to evaluate whether ideals of managerial power are consistent with the betterment of stakeholders. Others confront issue of gender stereotyping and describe attitudes fostering greater equality. How can US regulations improve auditor independence, enhance reporting quality, and augment responsibility are the aims of some authors, while accountability and public policy in a non-US setting is researched in another. Together, these articles work toward illuminating the role of the accounting profession as a potential change agent fostering public interest issues.

'This book is a much welcome tonic for public administration. It is one of the few books that explicitly focus on how audit institutions carry out their performance auditing responsibilities. While auditors will likely read this, the authors have geared the book to a broader readership, including public managers who are often the subject of performance audits.' -From the foreword by Paul Posner, George Mason University, US This state-of-the-art book examines the development of performance audit, drawing on the experience in a number of different countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The expert contributors identify the trajectory of performance audit, examine how it is conducted and consider what it is contributing to effective government. They conclude that, in the face of new challenges, performance auditors should focus both on their core responsibilities to ensure accountability, and continue to develop more insightful and sophisticated approaches to enable them to assess the growing complexity of the delivery of public services. By doing so, they can continue to play a valuable role in democratic accountability. Providing an up-to-date overview and discussion of performance audit, this highly topical book will appeal to all those working within audit, academics working in the fields of public management and public administration, as well practitioners in and close to state audit institutions. Members of Parliament, evaluators, internal auditors, researchers, policy analysts and consultants will also find this book invaluable. Contributors: E. Bechberger, R. Boyle, M. Funkhouser, J.-E. Furubo, J. Keen, F.L. Leeuw, T. Ling, J. Lonsdale, V. Put, A. Scharaschkin, R. Turksema, P. van der Knaap, E. Van Loocke, K. Weets, P. Wilkins

Designed for aspiring school leaders, this text presents the realities of school finance policy and issues, as well as the tools for formulating and managing school budgets. In an era of dwindling fiscal support for public schools, increasing federal mandates, and additional local budget requirements, educational leaders must be able to articulate sound finance theory and application. The authors move beyond coverage found in other texts by providing critical analysis and unique chapters on misconceptions about school finance; fiscal capacity, fiscal effort, adequacy, and efficiency; demographic issues; and spending and student achievement. Examining local, state, and federal education spending, this text gives readers the foundation to understand school finance and knowledgeably educate colleagues, parents, and other stakeholders about its big-picture issues, facts, and trends. The new edition of American Public School Finance will help educational leaders at all stages of their careers become informed advocates for education finance practice and reform. New in this edition: Expanded coverage on school choice Discussion of new standards and law Updated exploration of student demographics and its impact on learning Advanced pedagogical features such as connections to the latest Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL), Focus Questions, Case Studies, and Chapter Questions/Assignments Complementary electronic resources designed to deepen and extend the topics in each chapter and to provide instructors with lecture slides and other teaching strategies.

Public sector managers are constantly confronted by financial documents such as budgets, balance sheets and cash flow statements, yet most do not have a financial background. By approaching the subject from the point of view of how managers use the information, this book enables those studying or training to become public sector managers to get a better understanding of financial documents and communicate effectively with the financial people in their organization. A basic understanding of the principles and rules is instilled, in a concise way, and illustrations are used to encourage an appreciation for the value of financial information for decision making.

Advances in Public Interest Accounting is a research publication with two major aims. First, to provide a forum for researchers concerned with critically appraising and significantly transforming conventional accounting theory, practice, teaching and research. Second, to increase the social self-awareness of accounting practitioners, educators, and researchers, encouraging them to assume a greater responsibility for the profession's social role. We seek original manuscripts exploring all facets of this broad agenda. Illustrative of these aims, authors are concerned with:
-expanding accounting's focus beyond the behavior of individual corporate entities, encompassing the conflicts of interest within the accounting-regulatory process and effected groups;
-exploring alternatives to traditional economic and sociology models, beyond conventional efficiency and profitability measures of corporate performance;
-recognizing and examining the influences of gender and feminist theory, class and race, on accounting practice, education, and research;
-incorporating the significance of accounting as a communicative practice, as social dialogue, and as a social arbiter;
-recognizing and examining the effect of accounting practice on environmental issues and on the externalities imposed on local and global communities;
- examining accounting's participation in multinational expansion, consolidations, and changing economies undergoing transformations, such as Eastern and Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and the European Community;
- addressing the impact of new advances in information technologies.

This eighth volume in the series deals with a variety of topics in the field of advances in public interest accounting.

Every day, tens of thousands of people are involved in the financial management of the federal government--planning, budgeting, accounting, processing, and reporting. Hundreds of thousands more deal with the federal government through their work with local and state governments, the public sector, and nonprofit organizations. Likewise, federal contractors, subcontractors, and grantees are responsible for accurately accounting for and reporting on their use of federal funds. Every one of these professionals needs to understand and abide by the federal accounting principles and procedures currently accepted and practiced, most of which are not necessarily the generally accepted accounting principles of the private sector, nonprofit sector, or other levels of government.

Now in a second edition, Federal Accounting Handbook is the handbook that every financial federal employee can use, covering all of the recent revisions including new FASAB standards and how Congress wants the intent and objectives of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to be implemented by federal departments and agencies. Written for both the professional and the non-professional, this handbook equips you with the what, why, when, and how of federal financial management, including: Financial Management Legislation and Policy The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board Pronouncements Office of Management and Budget Circulars and Bulletins The Federal Budget Accounting Events of the Federal Government Federal Financial and Information Systems Assets, Liabilities, and Net Entity Position Non-Appropriated Fund Activities Costing Federal Entities, Programs, and Activities And much more

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION FOR: Federal accountants, budget officials, directors, and the staffs of chief financial officers, inspectors general, and internal auditors All CPAs, CGFMS, and CFAs Federal consultants, contractors, and grantees Professionals aspiring to credentials Anyone doing business with the federal government

Also available: Federal Government Auditing: Laws, Regulations, Standards, Practices, and Sarbanes-Oxley OMB Circular A-123 and Sarbanes-Oxley: Management's Responsibility for Internal Control in Federal Agencies Wiley GAAP for Governments 2006

An inherently interdisciplinary subject, tax avoidance has attracted growing interest of scholars in many fields. No longer limited to law and accounting, research increasingly has been conducted from other perspectives, such as anthropology, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and economic psychology. This was -recently stimulated by politicians, mass media, and the public focussing on tax avoidance after the global financial and economic crisis put a squeeze on private and public finances. New challenges were posed by changing definitions and controversies in the interpretation of tax avoidance concept, as well as a host of new rules and policies that need to be fully understood. This collection provides a comprehensive guide to students and academics on the subjects of tax avoidance from an interdisciplinary perspective, exploring the areas of accounting, law, economics, psychology, and sociology. It covers global as well as regional issues, presents a discussion of the definition, legality, morality, and psychology of tax avoidance, and provides guidance on measurement of economic effect of tax avoidance activities. With a truly international selection of authors from the UK, North America, Africa, Asia, Australasia, Middle East, and continental Europe, with well-known experts and rising stars of the field, the contributors cover the entire terrain of this important topic. The Routledge Companion to Tax Avoidance Research is a ground-breaking attempt to bring together scholarly research in tax avoidance, offering rigorous academic analysis of an important and hotly debated issue in a structured and balanced way.

Running public sector organizations requires specialist accounting and finance skills to overcome the unique challenges of the sector. Citizens rely on their governments to provide a wide range of public services from an inevitably limited budget and therefore the better that the public money is managed the more services that can be delivered. Just as there is no single best way to manage a business there is no single best way to manage public finances. Co-published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), the world's leading professional public finance accountancy body, International Public Financial Management: Essentials of Public Sector Accounting provides an expert introduction to public sector accounting and finance. This book was conceived to accompany CIPFA's International Public Financial Management (IPFM) qualifications as a resource for students that seeks to capture the essential elements of the modules they study, and reflects good practice as put forward by CIPFA in its examination syllabuses. Students of public management and public sector accounting will find this a useful text. Practitioners working in the public sector will also find this concise book vital reading in seeking value for money in providing public services.

Although banking and sovereign debt crises are not unusual, the crisis that has unfolded across the world since 2007 has been unique in both its scale and scope. It has also been unusual in being both triggered by, and mainly affecting, developed economies. Starting with the US subprime mortgage crisis, and the recession in 2007-2009, the problem soon erupted into financial crisis in Europe. A few of these countries came to the brink of bankruptcy, and were rescued by the EU and the IMF on the condition they adopt austerity measures. The detrimental social effects of the crisis in both the US and Europe are still emerging. Although there have been several studies published on the US crisis in particular, there has so far been an absence of an accessible comparative overview of both crises. This insightful text aims to fill this gap, offering a critical overview of causes, policy responses, effects and future implications. Starting with the historical context and mutation of the crisis, the book explores the policies, regulations, and governance reforms that have been implemented to cope with the US subprime mortgage crisis. A parallel analysis considers the causes of the European sovereign debt crisis and the responses of the European Union (EU), examining why the EU is as yet unable to resolve the crisis. This book is supported with eResources that include essay questions and class discussion questions in order to assist students in their understanding. This uniquely comprehensive and readable overview will be of interest and relevance to those studying financial crises, financial governance, international economics and international political economy.