Univ., Diss.--Paris.

This thesis examines the development of value for money (VFM) audit methods used by the National Audit Office (NAO) and considers what factors have influenced the identified changes. It also considers how developments compare with those elsewhere in Europe. The thesis is based on examination of more than 300 NAO reports, interviews with senior staff, focus groups, a thorough review of relevant literature, and comparisons with four other state audit offices. The thesis argues that VFM audit has developed into a strong form of evaluative activity, despite a number of constraints. The NAO enjoys a unique combination of the statutory power to initiate wide-ranging reviews; the right to demand documents and gain access to people; and the existence of a powerful parliamentary committee to review its work and ensure a government response to reports. Additionally, during the 1980s and 1990s, the NAO developed its VFM work, and in particular, the methods used, to become a more robust discipline. Although document review and interviews form the basis of much of the work, other methods have been added to the core repertoire, in particular, questionnaires. In addition, a broader range of methods has been used on occasions, from focus groups to systems dynamics. These developments are explained in terms of a response to broader changes in the administrative environment, in particular, new public management reforms. These have increased interest in public sector performance, enhanced the quality of information available, and given greater emphasis to service quality. Consequently, the NAO has sought to demonstrate it can 'add value' and encourage beneficial improvements to public services. Developments in methods are seen as one important way of doing this. The thesis places developments in the context of the growth of evaluative activities in the UK, whilst emphasising the particular focus of VFM work on accountability, and its links with financial audit.

Corollaire naturel de l'autorisation parlementaire, le contrôle des finances publiques est un élément indissociable de la démocratie. Aujourd'hui, le contrôle des finances publiques est appelé à se renouveler en raison des mutations profondes enclenchées par l'introduction de la logique de gestion. De nouvelles exigences, qui sont des prolongements de cette logique de gestion et de la recherche de la performance, font leur apparition dans ce monde du contrôle longtemps dominé par la seule préoccupation du respect de la régularité de l'exécution budgétaire. Les contrôles se sont diversifiés dans leurs formes et leurs objets, en adoptant des techniques issues du secteur privé, considéré souvent comme un modèle de la performance. Cette évolution s'inscrit dans un contexte institutionnel propre à la Thaïlande, marqué par la fragilité particulière du régime parlementaire. En conséquence, le contrôle interne connaît des évolutions importantes tandis que les organes de contrôle externe, à savoir, l'institution supérieure de contrôle et le Parlement, peinent à s'adapter face aux nouveaux enjeux des finances publiques. Néanmoins, il ne faut pas perdre de vue que toutes ces mutations ont lieu dans le cadre de nos sociétés fondée sur des principes démocratiques. Il est indispensable de concilier le politique et la gestion car les nouvelles techniques de contrôle n'ont pas lieu de remplacer l'organe de contrôle et de décision principal qu'est le Parlement mais elles ont pour objectif d'éclairer le politique. Il convient ainsi de proposer des préconisations afin de revaloriser le contrôle externe et d'améliorer, par là même, l'efficacité du contrôle des finances publiques. / Corollary of the principle of budget approval by the Parliament; the control of public money is an inseparable element of democracy. As a result of important transformations induced by the introduction of business management concept in the public sector, the public financial control system is required to be renewed. This system hence needs to consider new requirements in relation to new public management and the pursuit of performance in public sector. The public financial control mechanisms have diversified both in their forms and their contents. The tendency is to adopt the techniques used in the private sector generally considered as a model of performance management. These changes take place in a particular institutional context of Thailand which has been deeply affected by the instability of Parliamentary system. In consequence, the internal control system has learnt an important modernization concerning financial and budgetary control. Meanwhile, the organs in charge of external control, the Supreme Audit Institution and the Parliament, struggled to adapt to the new challenges of public finance. However, all of these transformations take place in our society, which is based on democratic principles. It is necessary to conciliate the politic and the management concepts because the new control techniques are not designed to replace the principal control and decisional organ, the Parliament, but these techniques are designed to inform the political organ. It is vital to propose potential solutions to strengthen the external control and, by that means, increase the efficiency of the public financial control.

The purpose of this research was to investigate how no-fee schools spend public money.It investigated what the schools spend the money and how they do it. The research investigated how decisions of spending are taken by all the stakeholders at the schools. The research wanted to find out whether the public money in no-fee schools was wisely spent or not. The literature review found that education funding has been at the centre of political reforms since 1994 to address equality and equity. The introduction of no-fee schools was an attempt to increase accesstowards quality public education through provision of more resources. The research found evidence of non-compliance by schools in certain areas on how schools should use funds as provided by SASA. It was found that schools do not spend the public money according to the prescript guidelines. There was evidence of fruitless and unwise spending. The research found that the powers that were given to schools SGBs through SASA were sometimes usurped by school principals asa result of the void created by the SGBs. It was revealed that some schoolsissue fraudulent cheques. Despite the no fee policy, schools still charge certain compulsory fees. The research revealed that certain functionaries directly involved in the use of school money still lack proper financial training, knowledge and skills. Despite the allocation of resources through the no-fee schools policy to schools, there were findings of inefficient and fruitless spending. Some of the sampled no-fee schools showed non-compliance with the guidelines in regard to correct spending and accountability. The different roles and responsibilities of each component of the SGB need to be clarified. Officials need to assist in this regard. There is a need for continuous training by education officials of SGBs on the utilization of school money. There is a need for improved monitoring and supervision as money cannot be utilized without proper monitoring and supervision. Despite the reports that are given to stakeholders there are still complaints from parents that need to be fully addressed by SGBs. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Les dépenses fiscales permettant de favoriser les investissements immobiliers ultramarins des personnes physiques, établies depuis maintenant une trentaine d'années, risquent pourtant d'être effacées du paysage fiscal français : d'une part, la fin prévue de ces dépenses approche à grand pas et d'autre part, ces dépenses font l'objet de nombreuses critiques et une partie de la doctrine milite pour leur suppression, au motif, principalement, que ces dépenses violeraient le principe d'égalité et qu'elles seraient trop coûteuses et ainsi néfastes aux finances publiques, sachant que le niveau de la dette publique est préoccupant et que la maîtrise des deniers publics est exigée tant au niveau national qu'au niveau européen. Du moins, l'examen approfondi desdites dépenses fiscales et du droit les régissant permet de réfuter certaines idées reçues et permet d'offrir une nouvelle approche de ces dépenses. Cet examen révèle, contre toute attente, que ces dépenses contribuent au redressement des finances publiques et répondent ainsi à l'exigence de maîtrise des deniers publics. En outre, il montre que ces dépenses jouissent d'une grande légitimité et qu'elles doivent être maintenues et prorogées ; elles ne sont aucunement contraires au principe d'égalité et permettent même de faire prospérer ce principe ; qui plus est, elles permettent de concrétiser le principe de solidarité (notamment parce qu'elles contribuent à garantir le droit au logement et le droit à la santé), et constituent ainsi, des dépenses qualifiées d'« impérieuses », l'impériosité des dépenses étant un nouveau concept dégagé – ayant vocation à être utilisé pour toutes dépenses fiscales – permettant de faire le départ entre les dépenses qui doivent nécessairement être faites et qui pourraient être converties en dépenses budgétaires et celles qui ne le pourraient pas, eu égard au principe de nécessité de l'impôt. Cependant, pour de telles dépenses impérieuses, la question de la justification de leur nature fiscale est alors cruciale, d'où il suit qu'une méthode, permettant de déterminer si la nature fiscale de telles dépenses est justifiée, a été élaborée, laquelle a permis de montrer que la nature fiscale desdites dépenses favorisant les investissements ultramarins est appropriée. Aussi légitimes que soient ces dépenses, elles ne sont toutefois pas exemptes de toute critique et mériteraient d'être réformées. Il s'agit notamment de mieux protéger les contribuables qui investissent aux fins d'obtenir un avantage fiscal (entre autres par le biais d'une lutte contre une insécurité juridique contestable) et de réduire certaines inégalités occasionnées par ces dépenses. En ce sens, et afin de mieux respecter le principe de solidarité, un certain nombre de propositions ont été émises (dont certaines pourraient profiter à l'ensemble des dépenses fiscales), au rang desquelles figure celle d'offrir aux contribuables la possibilité d'effectuer leurs investissements ouvrant droit à avantage fiscal, par le biais du service des impôts, lequel transfèrerait les fonds appartenant aux contribuables à une entreprise gérée par des personnes publiques. / Tax expenditures in favor of the ultramarine real estate investments of natural persons, established for some thirty years now, may well be erased from the French tax landscape: on the one hand, the expected end of these expenditures is fast approaching and on the other hand, these expenses are the subject of much criticism and part of the doctrine militates for their abolition, mainly on the grounds that such expenditure would violate the principle of equality and that they would be too costly and thus detrimental to the Public finances, knowing that the level of public debt is a matter of concern and that control of public funds is required both at national and at European level. At least, a thorough review of these tax expenditures and the law governing them can be used to refute certain stereotypes and to offer a new approach to these expenditures. This examination reveals, against all odds, that these expenses contribute to the restoration of public finances and thus meet the requirement of control of public funds. Moreover, it shows that these expenditures enjoy great legitimacy and must be maintained and extended; they are not contrary to the principle of equality and even allow this principle to flourish; moreover, they make it possible to give concrete expression to the principle of solidarity (notably because they help to guarantee the right to housing and the right to health) and thus constitute "imperious" expenditure, the urgency of expenditures being a new concept emitted - intended to be used for all tax expenditures - making it possible to differentiate between expenditures that must necessarily be made and which could be converted into budgetary expenditures, and those that could not, given the principle of necessity of the tax. However, for such imperious expenses, the question of the justification of their fiscal nature is crucial, that is why a method has been developed to determine whether the tax nature of such expenditures is justified. This method has shown that the fiscal nature of the said expenses favoring the ultramarine investments is appropriate. As legitimate as these expenditures are, however, they are not without criticism and deserve to be reformed. These include better protecting taxpayers who are investing for the purpose of obtaining a tax advantage (among other things by combating questionable legal insecurity) and reducing certain inequalities caused by such expenditures. In this regard, and in order to better respect the principle of solidarity, a number of proposals have been made (some of which could benefit all tax expenditures), among which is the idea of offering taxpayers the opportunity to make their tax-advantaged investments through the tax department, which would transfer the funds belonging to taxpayers to a publicly run company, a proposal with many advantages.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lais Cortes Ferreira Requiao.pdf: 11780435 bytes, checksum: 64acfe88910e312871b79ca82cc2bfb0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The observation of the existence of advertising paid with money from the culture incentive laws is the question of what this research starts, this configures the use of public money to a private brand experience. The non-advertisement of sponsor brands by cultural journalism leads to the questions: How does the brand visibility occurs, once the cultural journalism does not mention the sponsor when it communicates a cultural activity financed by tax relief? This research proposes a hypothesis opposed to the hegemonic understanding that what motivates companies is the value brought by associating its brand to a cultural activity. It aims to demonstrate that the higher interest is at brand publicity characterized by adverts financed by fiscal exemption. Thus, indicating a unclear promiscuous relation between commercial interests and public money. Therefore, the higher interest would not be the fiscal exemption or the positive image of associating a brand to an event, but the share allowed by law to be direct to publicity. This reflection is based on the studies of Adorno and Horkheimer (1986), Giorgio Agambem (2009), Naomi Klein (2004), Frederic Jameson (2001; 2007) and Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt (2003), as well as the discussions based on the analysis of these three authors by Sílvio Camargo (2011). It is in the context of late capitalism that the incentive to culture laws have been developed. The media is inserted in this context when it collaborates to transform cultural events in brand promotion opportunities. The corpus of the work includes the analysis of the media treatment given to three cultural high impact activities: The SWU Festival, The Mamma Mia Musical and the Telefônica Sonidos Festival / A observação da existência de publicidade paga com dinheiro proveniente das leis de incentivo à cultura é a questão da qual parte esta pesquisa, pois configura o emprego de dinheiro público para uma experiência privada de marca. A não divulgação das marcas patrocinadoras pelo jornalismo cultural nos leva à seguinte questão: uma vez que o jornalismo cultural, quando comunica uma atividade cultural financiada via renúncia fiscal, não menciona o nome da empresa financiadora, como se dá a visibilidade da sua marca? Para respondê-la, esta pesquisa propõe uma hipótese que contraria o entendimento hegemônico de que o que move as empresas é o valor que a associação a uma atividade cultural agrega à sua marca. O objetivo aqui é demonstrar que o interesse maior está na publicidade da marca que se estampa nos anúncios financiados com dinheiro de isenção fiscal, através de uma pouco clara relação promíscua entre interesses comerciais e dinheiro incentivado (público). O maior interesse não seria a isenção fiscal ou a imagem positiva da associação de uma marca a um evento, mas sim a fatia permitida por lei para ser destinada para a publicidade. A bibliografia que apóia a construção desta reflexão parte de Adorno e Horkheimer (1986), inclui Giorgio Agambem (2009), Naomi Klein (2004), Frederic Jameson (2001; 2007), Antonio Negri e Michael Hardt (2003), e as discussões feitas por Sílvio Camargo (2011) através de suas análises destes três últimos autores. É no contexto do capitalismo tardio que se consolidaram as leis de incentivo à cultura no Brasil, e a mídia nele se insere, ao colaborar para que os eventos culturais se transformem em oportunidades de promoção de marca. O corpus será composto pelo tratamento midiático de três atividades culturais de grande impacto: Festival SWU, Musical Mamma Mia e Festival Telefônica Sonidos

Submitted by Caio César de Medeiros Costa (caiocesq@hotmail.com) on 2016-04-27T16:08:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Caio TESE - Final-online.pdf: 1195855 bytes, checksum: 47e698198ae4640ae4b04fad29e5cd66 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2016-04-27T16:20:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Caio TESE - Final-online.pdf: 1195855 bytes, checksum: 47e698198ae4640ae4b04fad29e5cd66 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:43:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Caio TESE - Final-online.pdf: 1195855 bytes, checksum: 47e698198ae4640ae4b04fad29e5cd66 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-17 / Efficiency managing public resources has become an important issue for the academy and for public managers. The importance of the allocative function of the state, and the increased demands of the population also, has elevation the efficiency in the public money management subject to a high degree of relevance. To contribute to this debate, the main objective of this thesis is to understand the waste of the public resource and its nuances. In such set, public procurement processes and the occurrence of corruption are two important issues asking for further strength, and it is about them that I put effort over to answer the issues raised. Thus, this thesis was organized containing three original articles. Each one of them is dedicated to a specific aspect, identified within the theories that permeate the debate in the context of public administration and government. The first article aims to analyze the relevance of public bidding processes. Based on the assumptions of the theory of auctions, highlighting the relationship between increasing competition and lower prices from the bidders, the study adds to the literature on aspects such as transaction costs and problems related to the provider definition based in price as the unique criterion. The second article discusses the relationship between the lower prices strategies on the bidding stage and the contract modifications during its execution. This article has the literature is based on the literature that pointing, the difficulties in designing complete contracts considering the possibility of bidders avail themselves of information asymmetry to plot their strategies. By this use is given the unbalanced bids name and is on the point that the second paper discuss. In the third article, the theme addressed is corruption, and the intention of it is to verify the association between corruption and public health indicators in Brazilian municipalities. The findings raise some debate and add to the state of the art issues not raised yet. Among these issues, there is an association between conducting bidding processes and prices, on average, higher. Another important issue concerns the factors related to modifications of contracts, finding no empirical evidence to demonstrate the existence of the unbalanced bid. Finally, this last article highlights the relationship between corruption and socioeconomic indicators, showing, among other things, the correlation of corruption with the indicators in the opposite direction for certain indicators. It is hoped that this thesis will stimulate further research, involving issues addressed here, ideally giving contributions to improving public management in Brazil. / A gestão eficiente do recurso público tem se colocado como um importante tema tanto para a academia quanto para os gestores públicos. O papel de destaque da função alocativa do Estado, em conjunto com o aumento das demandas da população, tem alçado tal tema a alto grau de relevância. Para contribuir com esse debate, o objetivo principal desta tese é entender o desperdício do recurso e suas nuances. Nesse contexto, os processos de contratação por parte do Estado e a ocorrência de corrupção são dois assuntos em alta e que carecem de maior aprofundamento, e é sobre eles que me debruço para cumprir os objetivos traçados. Assim, a presente tese foi organizada contendo três artigos inéditos. Cada um deles se dedica a um aspecto específico, identificado dentro das teorias que permeiam o debate no contexto da administração pública e governo. O primeiro artigo tem como objetivo analisar a pertinência na realização de processos licitatórios. Partindo dos pressupostos da teoria dos leilões, que destacam a relação entre o aumento da concorrência e a diminuição dos preços praticados pelos licitantes,o estudo adiciona à literatura sobre o tema aspectos como os custos de transação e os problemas relacionados à definição do fornecedor, baseada no preço como critério único. O segundo artigo aborda a relação existente entre a economia obtida na etapa de licitação e as modificações realizadas no contrato durante a sua execução. Esse artigo conta com o subsídio da literatura que aponta as dificuldades em se desenhar contratos completos e que considera a possibilidade de os licitantes se valerem da assimetria de informação para traçar suas estratégias. A essa utilização se dá o nome de jogo de planilha e é sobre tal ponto que o segundo trabalho versa. No terceiro artigo, a temática abordada é a corrupção, e o objetivo do mesmo é verificar a possível associação entre a corrupção e os indicadores de saúde pública nos municípios. Se apoiando na literatura que destaca a relação negativa entre a corrupção e os indicadores sociais, eu testo se tal questão, se tal padrão de associação se repete nos indicadores municipais de saúde dos municípios. Os resultados encontrados suscitam alguns debates e acrescentam ao estado da arte questões ainda não levantadas. Entre essas questões, destaca-se a associação entre a realização de processos licitatórios e preços, em média, mais altos. Outra questão importante diz respeito aos fatores relacionados às modificações dos contratos, não encontrando evidências empíricas que demonstrem a existência do chamado jogo de planilha. Por fim, esse último artigo destaca a relação entre a corrupção e os indicadores socioeconômicos, demonstrando, entre outros aspectos, a correlação da corrupção com os indicadores em sentido oposto para determinados indicadores. Espera-se que esta tese estimule pesquisas mais aprofundadas, envolvendo as temáticas aqui abordadas, idealmente, dando contribuições para a melhoria da gestão pública no Brasil, em que pese a importância dos processos de compras públicas e a relação entre a corrupção e os indicadores de saúde.

Submitted by Paulo Junior (paulo.jr@fgv.br) on 2010-11-23T16:42:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CLÁUDIA SANTANA.pdf: 1573233 bytes, checksum: 002a26b00452977bae826bcca5c508cb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Paulo Junior(paulo.jr@fgv.br) on 2010-11-23T16:44:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CLÁUDIA SANTANA.pdf: 1573233 bytes, checksum: 002a26b00452977bae826bcca5c508cb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-12-14T18:15:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CLÁUDIA SANTANA.pdf: 1573233 bytes, checksum: 002a26b00452977bae826bcca5c508cb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-19 / Due to the importance of the government‟s internal control, countrywide and worldwide, given the increase of corruption and the administrative inefficiency towards the citizens and the lack of research about the controlling activity of the government expenditures with public money, this study tried to identify the government management to improve the public spending. Thereupon, the study attempted to examine the quality of the outlay related to the government‟s internal control and analyze the management system of internal control used by the state of Pernambuco, identifying the best practices that are directly related to the efficiency of the public resources outflow. The agency of internal control of the Pernambuco state government was chosen as the subject of analysis as a result of the fact that this agency has gone through huge administrative changes due to the renovation and adaptation to the new demand made by the society, which wants transparency and quality in the control of public money expenditures. In the results shown, it was possible to verify practices that indicated a financial gain for the State, which means that there are resources available to be spent in the enlargement of the benefits towards the society. The organizational structure costs of the control agency were also shown, which pointed to a positive economical result as a result of the practices done by the internal control agency. The study concluded that the Pernambuco internal control agency is aligned with the most modern principles of management, which focus on the results of the actions. However being in the right direction, it was clear that improvements related to the increase of administrative control practices in the state were observed. / Diante da importância do tema relacionado à atividade de controle interno governamental, no cenário nacional e internacional, tendo em vista o aumento da corrupção e a ineficiência administrativa no alcance dos resultados voltados para os cidadãos e ainda, da escassez de pesquisas exploratórias acerca da atividade de controle com enfoque na efetividade em busca da melhoria do gasto público, este estudo procurou identificar práticas da gestão do controle interno governamental que repercutem efetivamente na melhoria da qualidade do gasto público. Para isso procurou conceituar a qualidade do gasto relacionada à atuação do controle interno governamental e avaliar o modelo gerencial de controle interno adotado pelo Estado de Pernambuco, diagnosticando as práticas que estão diretamente relacionadas à melhoria da qualidade na aplicação do recurso público. A escolha do órgão de controle interno governamental do Estado de Pernambuco para o objeto deste estudo deve-se ao fato deste órgão ter sido palco de grandes mudanças na sua gestão com vistas à renovação e adaptação à nova demanda da sociedade que clama pela transparência e qualidade na aplicação do recurso público. Dos resultados apresentados foi possível identificar práticas decorrentes da ação do órgão de controle interno na gestão pública que indicaram um ganho financeiro para o Estado, ficando assim o recurso disponível para a ampliação de benefícios destinados à sociedade. Salientou-se, ainda, o custo da estrutura organizacional do órgão de controle, fato que apontou para um resultado econômico positivo decorrente das ações do órgão de controle interno. O estudo concluiu pela existência de alinhamento do órgão de controle de Pernambuco com os princípios mais modernos de gestão a partir do enfoque no resultado das ações. No entanto, apesar de estar na direção certa, ficou evidente a necessidade de grandes avanços com o fim de potencializar as ações de controle na gestão pública estadual.

Conclure sur le sujet de la liberté contractuelle en droit administratif français n’est pas chose aisée. Cela dépend, essentiellement, de la façon de poser la problématique. Ainsi, si la question est de savoir si les personnes publiques disposent, à l’instar des particuliers, d’une liberté contractuelle, la réponse, dans le meilleur des cas, est qu’il s’agit d’une liberté à caractère particulier. En effet, en pratique, cette liberté est très restreinte, ses manifestations sont marginales, ce qui empêche véritablement de parler de « liberté heureuse ». Mais si la question est de savoir si le droit administratif français, à partir de ses particularités, de son originalité ainsi que de ses règles normatives, permet de reconnaître une telle liberté en faveur des personnes publiques, alors la réponse est négative. L’intérêt général, les prérogatives de la puissance publique, la compétence, la souveraineté, l’efficacité de la commande publique, la bonne utilisation des deniers publics et les principes fondamentaux de la commande publique,etc., constituent des obstacles fondamentaux non seulement à la reconnaissance de la liberté contractuelle aux personnes publiques mais également à son exercice effectif par ces dernières. Ainsi, certains auteurs ont pu conclure au sujet de la liberté contractuelle des personnes publiques qu’« en théorie elle existe mais, dans la pratique, personne ne l'a jamais vraiment rencontrée". / Concluding on the subject of freedom of contract in French administrative law is not easy. It depends essentially on how to raise the issue. So if the question is whether public persons have, as individuals, contractual freedom, the answer, in the best case is that this is a special character to freedom. Indeed, in practice, this freedom is very limited, its manifestations are marginal, which prevents us from truly speaking of a "happy freedom." But if the question is whether the French administrative law, from its peculiarities, its originality and its normative rules can recognize such freedom in favor of public entities, then the answer is negative. The public interest, the prerogatives of public power, competence, sovereignty, efficiency of public procurement, proper use of public money and the fundamental principles of public procurement, etc., are fundamental obstacles not only to the recognition of freedom of contract to public persons but also to the effective exercise by them. Some authors have concluded on the contractual freedom of public persons that "in theory it exists but in practice, nobody really ever met it"

This dissertation analyses the idea that parliament controls public money in parliamentary constitutional systems of government. That analysis proceeds through an historical and contemporary examination of the way legal practices distribute authority over public money between different institutions of government. The legislative and judicial practices concerning taxation, public expenditure, sovereign borrowing, and the government financing activities of central banks are selected for close attention. The contemporary analysis focuses on the design and operation of those legal practices in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Australia, in the context of the boom-bust-recovery economic conditions experienced between 2005 and 2016. The dissertation's ultimate claims are explanatory: that "parliamentary control" is a poor explanation of the distribution of financial authority in parliamentary systems of government and should be jettisoned in favour of an idea of "parliamentary ratification". An empirically engaged methodology is adopted throughout the dissertation and (historical and contemporary) public sector financial data enrich the legal analysis. The dissertation acknowledges the impact of, but remains agnostic between, different economic and political perspectives on fiscal discipline and public financial administration. The dissertation makes a number of original contributions. It provides a detailed examination of the historical development, legal operation and constitutional significance of annual appropriation legislation, and the legal regimes governing sovereign borrowing and monetary finance. It also analyses the way that law interacts with government behaviour in situations of economic emergencies (focusing on the Bank of England's public financing activities since 2008), and the institutional and doctrinal obstacles facing judicial involvement in disputes concerning public finance (focusing on the Australian judiciary's recent engagements with public expenditure legislation).