Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-133).

The study examines the role of ward committees in facilitating public participation with particular reference to Mamelodi, South Africa. This study is aimed at establishing whether ward committees serve as effective mechanisms to promote public participation in local government and administration. As a result, the study investigates the composition, functioning and responsibilities of ward committees, and their contributions towards effective and efficient municipal government. Qualitative research methodology is adopted, towards the realisation of the aims and objectives of the study. Accordingly, an interview schedule was utilised as a tool that contains the pre-determined questions prepared in order to acquire insight, knowledge and application of the people who are directly involved and familiar with the ward committee processes. An empirical study was conducted to determine if the research answers the problem statement, and also to measure the failures and success of ward committees in enhancing public participation. The findings proved that ward committees are confronted with a conglomerate of challenges where their functioning tends to be compromised. Consequently, the study made some recommendations after the various arguments relating to the subject matter were presented. This is done, in an attempt to improve the capacity of ward committees and all institutions that play a role in the enhancement of public participation. / Dissertation (MAdmin)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

The discussion on the extent to which audit committees perform the oversight function of financial governance is important. This is particularly so in the Eastern Cape where the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) of 1999 has not significantly improved financial management. The deteriorating financial management environment of provincial departments impacts negatively on service delivery and is therefore a matter of great concern to the political administrators at both national and provincial levels. The objective of this study is to determine how effective audit committees are in Eastern Cape provincial departments and how this translates into good financial governance and, ultimately, improved service delivery. To achieve this objective, a literature review of the link between audit committee effectiveness, accountability and corporate governance in the public sector was conducted. It was found that audit committees in the public sector have similar responsibilities to that of the private sector and lack of accountability in the public sector impacts negatively on service delivery. A second literature review was conducted to highlight the current state of public financial management in South Africa and how this has had an impact on financial management in Eastern Cape provincial departments. A qualitative research methodology was applied because the researcher is of the opinion that the research question asked is more interpretive than predictive. An interview survey was conducted in which senior management officials were selected from provincial departments and interviewed using semi-structured questions. The research study concluded, that provincial departments in the Eastern Cape have all established audit committees in line with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) National Treasury regulations. These committees are however ineffective. Ineffectiveness is as a result of, among other factors, lack of stability in accounting officer and chief financial officer positions. Secondly, senior management have not been made to account for the persistent negative audit outcomes in their departments. The research recommends that the political leadership of the province should ensure stability in leadership, particularly in the position of accounting officer and the chief financial officer.

The continuous failure of South African municipal administration, governance and oversight, renders the effectiveness of the municipal audit committee, questionable. The purpose of this study is to propose a framework for improving audit committee effectiveness in South African municipalities. The purpose was achieved by obtaining an understanding of the factors influencing the effectiveness of the municipal audit committees from municipal stakeholders and audit committee members; further exploring the factors identified from the stakeholders and audit committee members through a literature study and review of best practices; and acquiring input from stakeholders regarding the relevance and completeness of the framework developed, leading to refining of the framework. A constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemologies were employed to achieve the research objective and a qualitative research methodology was embraced, comprising of focus groups, a literature study and an interview survey. The agency theory was adopted as the grand theory for this study and the resource-based view of the firm theory was applied to the literature, to extend and complement the existing literature on the effectiveness of audit committees. During the first phase of the study, the Interactive Qualitative Analysis method was harnessed for conducting the focus groups and analyses of the data. Purposive sampling was applied to select 15 participants who were stakeholders and audit committee chairpersons of municipalities, to conduct two focus groups. Twenty-five affinities (factors) and 139 sub-affinities (sub-factors) that influence the effectiveness of audit committees were identified, consolidated into five themes. The second phase was to explore the factors identified by the focus groups through a literature study. The findings of the literature study and focus groups were employed to develop the draft framework consisting of a Framework for audit committees and a Framework for municipalities. The development of these two guides led to a third guide for National Treasury, provincial treasuries and SALGA. In the third phase, purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to select participants to semi-structured interviews, followed by the refinement of the framework. Based on the findings, a framework is proposed, comprising factors that can improve the effectiveness of audit committees in South African municipalities. Furthermore, activities that can be centralised to enhance the effectiveness of municipal audit committees are identified, and an improved framework for agency theory is introduced. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

BACKGROUND: Little research has been conducted to observe the impact that rural settings have on the structure and function of hospital ethics committees. Additionally, studies need to focus on ethics committees, as it is often the body which protects the values of the community as globalization increases. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of ethics committees in rural hospitals in East Tennessee. METHODS: From a list of fifteen hospitals in East Tennessee, eleven hospitals in communities of 15,000 people or less were contacted, ten of which had functioning ethics committees. Phone calls were made to identify members of the ethics committee and interviews were set up with nine of the hospitals. A structured interview format was used to address the range of topics. Hospital size ranged from 6 to 230 beds. RESULTS: The most unique trait afforded to small hospital ethics committees was their ability to communicate effectively and efficiently due to their small size. The culture of the area subtly impacted the type of issues the committees faced as did the hospital network affiliation. CONCLUSIONS: While connection to a network provides abundant resources, small hospital size reduces the inefficiency created by the bureaucracy of larger hospitals and enhances communication. Ethics committees in rural hospitals are variably effective and contain a level of organization comparable to that of larger hospitals.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to test the following hypotheses: 1. There are differences in the concepts of role ascribed to school committee members by the registered voters of Massachusetts and by the School Committee Members of Massachusetts. 2. Differences in the concepts of role ascribed to school committee are determined, in part, by a person's age, sex, income, political affiliation, occupation, education, geographic location and the size of the community in which he resides. [TRUNCATED] / 2999-01-01