No abstract available / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Financial Management / unrestricted

Although many extraneous variables such as different countries, levels of economic development, technologies, and politics are as important in determining the success of a project as its budgeting and finance, this report is solely from the finance and budgeting perspective. It is shown that projects in the United States have a systemic budgeting process, based on sound concepts of planning and control. In contrast, financial and budgeting planning is underdeveloped in the two projects examined in Nigeria. It is desirable that the least developed countries seek expert advice before embarking on any environmental health services programmes which may lead to the waste of resources if not properly planned and managed.

No description available.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine how a university aligns the budget allocation process to the strategic plan process. This case study was conducted at a four-year, liberal arts university in the southeastern part of the United States. The qualitative data was collected through personal individual interviews from a purposeful sample of administrators at the university who were knowledgeable about the budget allocation process and the strategic plan. Data were also collected through a document review from items publically accessible online and information received from the interviews. By analyzing data derived from the interviews and document review, three themes were identified, inclusive process, data informed decisions, and leadership driven. Findings from this study may be useful at other universities that are aligning their budget allocation process to the strategic plan. This information is valuable to state legislators who are evaluating how universities spend state money.

This study examined the implementation and assessment of revenue-based budgeting at a medium-size, private, mission-based graduate school of education (SOE), under the pseudonym Peter Claver University (PCU). Additionally, two other similar schools were included in the study because they used revenue-based budgeting for a period of 10 years or longer and their missions were comparable to that of PCU’s SOE. A survey and three interviews were conducted with the deans of the three schools and responses were subjected to content analysis and triangulation. Points of consensus between the deans were the following: a strong favor for the revenue-based budgeting model; the desire for regular assessment to determine the success of the revenue-based budget and to update the model based on new economies and forecasting; the belief that revenue-based budgeting would give the deans more control over their schools’ futures; and the conviction that revenue-based budgeting provided the deans with the flexibility to accomplish the strategic goals of the school. The major findings included that budget models need to be tailored to the institution’s goals and academic objectives; no specific revenue-budget formula fits all institutions; SOEs will be successful by having an interdependent financial model; deans are expected to be financially savvy; there are no service level agreements between SOEs and the service departments; SOEs with higher percentage of faculty receiving grants can be more innovative; assessment of the revenue-based model on an as-need-basis and rarely happens; and deans are supportive of a revenue-based budget model.

Структура магистерской диссертации включает в себя введение, три главы, заключение, список использованных источников и приложения. В первой главе рассмотрены теоретические основы бюджетирования на предприятии. Во второй главе исследованы методы управления хозяйственной деятельностью и алгоритмы принятия управленческих решений. В третьей главе разработаны основные направления совершенствования системы бюджетирования на предприятии ООО «Известь Сысерти». В заключении сформированы основные выводы. / The structure of the master's thesis includes an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of references and applications. The first chapter examines the theoretical foundations of enterprise budgeting. The second chapter examines methods of managing economic activities and algorithms for making managerial decisions. In the third chapter, the main directions of improving the budgeting system at the Izvest Sysert LLC enterprise are developed. In the conclusion, the main conclusions are formed.

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the susceptibility of capital budgeting decisions to bias. Based on the political nature of many of these decisions, attribute framing effects were analyzed in a capital budgeting decision context. Specifically, two independent variables were analyzed: accounting data and attribute frames. This research proposed that attribute framing effects would be conditional on the nature of the accounting data being considered. When the accounting data elicited a positive or negative evaluative reaction, attribute frames were expected to be unobtrusive to capital budgeting decisions. However, when the accounting data was neutral, eliciting an ambiguous evaluative reaction, attribute frames were predicted to bias these decisions. An experiment was conducted that considered the issue across two types of capital budgeting decisions: accept/reject decisions (dichotomous decision) and strategic alliance judgments (monetary allocations). Experimental findings strongly support the predicted relationships. These results suggest that persuasive descriptions are not effective in capital budgeting contexts when accounting data provides a clear picture as to the investment's future success; however, these tactics may be vitally important when accounting information is unclear about the investment's future success. / Ph. D.

One monumental problem the East African Community faces today is implementation of its proposed bill known as the East African Community Security Protocol on peace and security. This bill was crafted upon the basis of existing scholarship which examines security and community either from the top-down/state-centric approaches (neorealism/neoliberalism/constructivism/etc.) or as vernacular security--bottom-up. Both of these approaches are inadequate in that they still a) prioritize the state/relate to the state/central authority, b) are Eurocentric (based on/dominated by European points of views), and c) do not adequately explain security collaborations in areas such as East Africa (EA). Therefore, this thesis develop a "responsive security community" approach which does not only ties top-down and ground-up approach, but it also advocates for development of strong states before the creation of a security community. This thesis argue that different states have their very different historical backgrounds and legacies. Hence, in order to have effective security community in EA there need be responsive, human security oriented states which embrace participation and inclusion in sub-national and national level. This would ensure the protection of the vital core of all their citizens' lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfillment. To discuss this responsive community approach, this thesis analyzes the theories of security community post WW II in conjunction with the development of the East African Community Security Protocol. This thesis also employs the theories of Participatory Budgeting (PB) and ground up approach as models for strengthening state and East African Civil Society Organization Forum (EACSOF). This thesis concludes that responsive security community in EA requires strong states which combine a focus on traditional notions of security with human/individual security. / Master of Public and International Affairs

No / "Enabling Multichannel Participation through ICT Adaptations for Participatory Budgeting ICT-enabled platform” (EMPATIA) is a multi-channel participatory budgeting (PB) platform that represents a significant social innovation process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, involving citizens within complex public-institution structures. EMPATIA was targeted to deliver socio-economic and political benefits, such as enhancing citizen-government engagement, increasing public value through PB process, promoting ‘inclusiveness’ among the marginalized groups of citizens, and impeding political discontent that underpins distrust and skepticism towards the government. The attainment of these benefits will be driven by the EMPATIA's performance. Hence, a performance measurement tools is needed to enable assessment of EMPATIA, empirically. With an aim to propose an integrated performance evaluation metrics, this study presents a set of assessment criteria for multi-channel digitally enabled PB service platforms – especially EMPATIA. Findings from a qualitative, multi-strategies research approach suggest that the metrics should include five key technical and non-technical performance indicators, to be used as basis for the development of future evaluation instruments. Of major signposts, the metrics would inform key performance aspects to be considered during the PB platform development, and evaluated to indicate the PB platform performance.

Yes / Purpose – The objective of this study is to understand the budgetary role of national legislatures in Euro Area (EA) countries and to analyse implications for fiscal discipline. Design/methodology/approach – Building on the budget institutions literature, a legislative budgetary power index for all the 19 EA countries is constructed using OECD and European Commission data as well as data generated from questionnaires to national authorities. A two-way fixed effects panel data model is then used to assess the effect of legislative budgetary power on the budget balance in the EA during 2006-15. Findings - Overall, in the EA, formal legislative powers vis-à-vis the national budgetary process are weak but there is more legislative involvement in SGP procedures and legislative budgetary organisational capacity is generally quite good. In contrast to the traditional view in the budget institutions literature, our empirical findings show that strong legislative budgetary power does not necessarily result in larger budget deficits. Research limitations/implications – Data on legislative budgeting was available from different sources and timeseries data was very limited. Practical implications – There is scope to improve democratic legitimacy of the national budgetary process in the EA, without necessarily jeopardising fiscal discipline. Originality/value – The constructed legislative budgetary power index covers all the 19 EA countries and has a broad scope covering various novel institutional characteristics. The empirical analysis contributes to the scarce literature on the impact of legislative budgeting on fiscal discipline.