Since 1994, the South African education system has been undergoing continuous transformation which has had an impact on the governance of Further Education and Training (FET) colleges. This study, which focused on an investigation of the principles of effective governance at FET colleges, was conducted in three purposefully sampled FET colleges. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse data collected using semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. The main finding of this study revealed that college councils do not have either the capacity or the resources to develop policies for colleges, nor is there a clear and documented reporting process in place. The study highlighted that the roles and responsibilities of college council’s sub-committees are not clearly defined in the 2006 FETC Act. Based on the research findings, recommendations were made in respect of the effective participation of college councils in the governance of FET colleges. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Student Number : 9908223M - PhD thesis - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / This thesis examines the status and role of parliamentary committees in democratic theory with a view to critically assessing the performance of one such committee, the South African version of the PAC, SCOPA. It advances a pluralist theory of popular sovereignty according to which there is no single institutional complex or site, which exclusively expresses the will of the people. The latter is the case in monist theories, which reduce democracy to its practice in a single site. Rousseau and Weber are critically examined in this connection. In the pluralist notion advanced in this thesis the popular will is expressed and realized in a plurality of institutional sites and modalities of exercise. On this perspective parliamentary committees perform a function vital to the constitution of popular sovereignty itself. They are indispensable to the formation by the people of an accurate perception by it of what the Executive is doing in its name. Their investigative work is thus constitutive of the formation of a democratic subject and will. Parliamentary committees are thus central to the satisfaction of the conditions of the deliberative dimension of democracy. On this definition, parliamentary committees must in addition themselves conform to the principles of deliberation in their own practice. This specifically deliberative conception of democracy is then further delineated by distinguishing it from the aggregation – majoritarian perspective and defending it against a variety of criticisms, including that of Chantal Mouffe. With this conceptual and normative framework in place, the British and American committee systems are examined in order to establish some reference points in terms of the institutional practice of parliamentary committees. The focus then shifts to the parliamentary committees of the South African Parliament. The constitutional and legal foundation for parliamentary committees (in the South African system) is examined with particular reference to SCOPA itself and the first five years of the new parliamentary committee system identified as a period during which several South African parliamentary committees, including SCOPA, effectively exercised their “oversight” function. Once the Government’s SDP entered the scene all things changed. This thesis examines the formation of the JIT, paying particular attention to the exclusion of the HSIU and the interventions of the Speaker, Hon Frene Ginwala. It identifies in close detail all the flaws in the SDP procurement process as well as the contradictions and lacunae in the final JIT Report itself. These are of such a magnitude as to render unreasonable any claim to the contrary and in endorsing the Report SCOPA thus clearly failed in its essential function. The notion of a threshold concept of reasonable adequacy is introduced as limiting the conditions under which committee decisions can legitimately be taken via majority voting. The argument is advanced that these were clearly not met in the case of the SCOPA decision under discussion. The implications of this “collapse” of SCOPA for South African democracy more broadly are then identified and discussed in terms of deliberative democratic theory.

I investigate the effects of requiring the audit engagement partner (EP) signature and individual EP’s quality on information asymmetry, analysts’ forecast errors and forecast dispersion. I predict and find that, ceteris paribus, there is a significant decline in information asymmetry, analysts’ forecast errors and forecast dispersion from the pre- to post-EP signature period in the UK over both of short-term (e.g., 2008-2010) and long-term (e.g., 2004-2014). These findings hold when using a control sample approach and a different proxy for the information asymmetry, which indicate that my results are not likely due to the effect of concurrent events and correlated omitted variables. These findings provide timely and important empirical evidence to the ongoing debate about whether the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board should pass a similar requirement in the U.S. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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Submitted by Marcela de Carvalho Ponce Kawauti (marcelacponce@hotmail.com) on 2014-02-28T02:11:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DoddFrank_MK_270214.pdf: 3147203 bytes, checksum: 3ff834fb3d62bc255730fa98e23ba293 (MD5) / Rejected by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br), reason: Prezada Marcela, Falta a contra capa: Fundação antes da escola, numeração das paginas não estão de acordo com a ABNT. Modelos de dissertações/teses na biblioteca digital. Att. Suzi 3799-7876 on 2014-02-28T14:43:25Z (GMT) / Submitted by Marcela de Carvalho Ponce Kawauti (marcelacponce@hotmail.com) on 2014-02-28T23:31:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DoddFrank_MK_FINAL.pdf: 3155751 bytes, checksum: 5cbd278a6017fe7bff89ba5d061ec66d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2014-03-06T14:41:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DoddFrank_MK_FINAL.pdf: 3155751 bytes, checksum: 5cbd278a6017fe7bff89ba5d061ec66d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-03-06T14:44:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DoddFrank_MK_FINAL.pdf: 3155751 bytes, checksum: 5cbd278a6017fe7bff89ba5d061ec66d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-08 / The systemic financial crisis that started in 2008 in the United States had some severe effects in the economic activity and required the bailout of financial institutions with the use of taxpayer’s money. It also originated claims for stronger regulatory framework in order to avoid another threat in the financial market. The Dodd Frank Act was proposed and approved in the United States in the aftermath of the crisis and brought, among many other features, the creation of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the tougher inspection of financial institutions with asset above 50 billion dollars. The objective of this work is to study the causal effect of the Dodd Frank Act on the behavior of the treatment group subject to monitoring by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (financial institutions with assets above 50 billion dollars) regarding capital and compensation structure in comparison to the group that was not treated. We use data from Compustat and our empirical strategy is the Regression Discontinuity Design, not usually applied to the banking literature, but very useful for the present work since it allows us to compare the treatment group and the non-treatment group in the year of the enactment of the law (2010). No change of behavior was observed for the Capital Structure. In the Compensation Schemes, however, a decrease was found in the item other compensation for CEOs and CFOs. We also performed a robustness check by running a placebo test on the variables in the year before the law was enacted. No significance was found, which supports the conclusion that our main results were caused by the enactment of the DFA. / A crise financeira com características sistêmicas que começou em 2008 nos Estados Unidos teve efeitos severos na atividade econômica e demandou o salvamento de algumas instituições financeiras com o uso do dinheiro dos impostos. Também gerou clamores por uma regulação mais estrita de forma a evitar uma nova ameaça no mercado financeiro. O Dodd Frank Act foi proposto e aprovado nos Estados Unidos após a crise e trouxe, além de outras características, a criação do Financial Stability Oversight Council e a maior fiscalização das instituições financeiras com ativos acima de 50 bilhões de dólares. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o efeito causal do Dodd Frank Act no comportamento do grupo de tratamento sujeito ao monitoramento do Financial Stability Oversight Council (instituições financeiras com ativos acima de 50 bilhões de dólares) com relação à estrutura de capital e de remuneração em comparação com o grupo que não recebeu o tratamento. Usamos dados do Compustat e nossa estratégia empírica é o Regression Discontinuity Design, que não é usual na literatura que analisa bancos, mas que nos permite comparar o grupo de tratamento e o grupo não tratado no ano em que a lei entrou em vigor (2010). Nenhuma mudança de comportamento foi observada na estrutura de capital. Com relação à remuneração. No entanto, encontramos uma queda no item Other Compensation para CEOs e CFOs. Também rodamos um cheque de robustez com um teste placebo nas variáveis no ano anterior à entrada em vigor da lei. Nenhuma significância foi encontrada, o que sustenta a nossa conclusão de que os resultados principais foram de fato causados pela nova legislação

This study investigated the alignment of the oversight function conducted by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) with the constitutional oversight mandate and with the service delivery priorities for Gauteng. The Gauteng Provincial Legislature adopts 5-year strategic plans at the beginning of each Political Term of Office to execute its mandates of oversight, law making, public participation and cooperative governance. Since all functions of the legislature emanate from these strategic planning documents, and if such 5-year strategic plans are aligned to the legislature’s mandate on oversight and to the provincial priorities for the province, it can be deduced that the resultant oversight function conducted by the legislature will similarly be aligned. This alignment between the oversight function of the legislature and the constitutional mandate on oversight, and between the oversight function of the legislature and the service delivery priorities for Gauteng is essential to promote implementation, performance and ultimately, the actual service delivery by the executive in a manner that is similarly aligned with the constitutional oversight mandate and the service delivery priorities for Gauteng. By using a qualitative approach, the study has shown that this alignment is inadequate. While there was sufficient alignment between the oversight conducted by the GPL and the Constitutional oversight mandate, there was inadequate alignment between the oversight conducted by the GPL and the service delivery priorities for Gauteng. The study has also identified challenges that relate to these inadequate alignments as well as recommendations for improvement. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public administration and management)

Följande uppsats kommer att utreda samt komparera den juridiska institutionen för grundlagsändring mellan länderna Sverige och Spanien. Detta kommer att genomföras i en komparativrättslig metod för att kunna analysera och diskutera vardera lands reglering kring detta ämne. Uppsatsen redovisar hur en grundlagsändringsprocedur går till i praktiken, men även vilka som kan initiera ändringen samt vad för regleringar som finns gällande grundlagsändring. Materialet som kommer att användas är väsentligen de traditionella juridiska källorna samt somliga publikationer från media. Det kommer att dras slutsatser gällande skillnaderna respektive likheterna i slutet av uppsatsen för att summera all information samt analysen. / This following essay will investigate and compare the legal institution for constitutional amendment between the countries of Sweden and Spain. This will be carried out in a comparative legal method in order to be able to analyze and discuss each country’s regulation around this subject. The essay describes how a constitutional amendment procedure works in practice, but also who can initiate the amendment and what regulations exist regarding the constitutional amendment. The material that will be used in this essay is essentially the traditional legal sources as well as some publications from the media. Conclusions will be drawn regarding the differences and similarities at the end of the essay to summarize all the information and the analysis.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Botswana public service and to identify the factors that facilitated and hindered the successful implementation of the programme. This study used a mixed methods research design which combines both qualitative and quantitative research design. The study used the model of social programmes, which is a holistic and comprehensive analytical framework that is used to study the implementation of social intervention programmes. Research data was obtained using a triangulation of research methods (case study, evaluation research and survey method) and data sources (literature review, document analysis, self-administered questionnaires and follow-up personal interviews). A sample of 90 respondents was selected using the purposive sampling strategy. The study found that the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation was problematic because of unclear and ambiguous foreign policy goals and objectives; lack of broad-based support and critical mass of champions of the performance management system; use of command-and-control management model rather than empowerment and the adaptation model; inadequate human and institutional capacities; ineffective supporting systems of the performance management system; weak accountability and responsibility mechanisms; weak intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial communication, co-operation, collaboration and co-ordination; inadequate information and communications technology infrastructure and unfavourable international environment. This study contributed to the existing literature by investigating the implementation of the performance management system in the global environment from a public service perspective rather than a private sector perspective, which relies on the experiences of multinational companies. The study findings provide some invaluable insights that may improve the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Botswana public service by proposing recommendations to the identified problems. The recommendations include: setting clear and specific foreign policy objectives; creating a critical mass of champions of the performance management system; strengthening human and institutional capacities; promoting effective implementation and use of supporting systems of the performance management system; strengthening accountability and responsibility mechanisms; strengthening intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial communication, co-operation, collaboration, and co-ordination; strengthening decentralisation and empowerment principles and upgrading information and communications technology infrastructure. / Public Administration and Management / DPA

沙氏法是美國在經歷一連串包括安隆、世界通訊等知名企業在內的財報不實醜聞後，為重建投資大眾對公開發行公司財報及美國證券市場的信心，迅速於2002年7月30日頒佈之一項企業革新法。綜觀其中66項條款，引發最多爭議、且對所有公司影響最大的首推404條款。該條款要求管理階層與簽證會計師評估公司與財務報導有關之內部控制制度其有效性，而爭議的重點主要在其實施方式和高遵循成本。 本研究透過個案研究，以深度訪談與問卷調查的方式，瞭解個案公司為遵循沙氏法404條款而推動之專案其組織架構與施行程序，同時蒐集公司主管及員工之意見，以分析實施效益並提出建議。 研究發現，33.34%的受訪者認同公司遵循沙氏法404條款所獲得的效益大於成本，17.34%反對，49.33%持中性看法。受訪者除認為實施沙氏法專案有助於強化同仁的風險意識、引導公司重新檢視與財務報導有關之內部控制制度，並將作業程序標準化、提升內控品質與財報可信度、遵循集團政策外，同時認為沙氏法專案有改善的空間，尤其在整合公司現有的風險控管機制、簡化測試流程及對測試文件的要求等方面。 誠如個案公司財務長所重視的“塑造企業文化”，沙氏法404條款強調的是“由上到下、以風險為基礎”，因此，樹立正確的在上位者之語調與表態極為重要，尤其是董事會、執行長和財務長，必須全力支持，建構具成本效益且符合沙氏法404條款的測試架構，以評估與財務報導有關之內部控制，進而確保財務報導之可靠性。 / After a whole series of financial scandals, such as Enron and WorldCom frauds, the US government swiftly declared the Corporate Reform Law on July 30, 2002, i.e. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”), aiming to restore investors’ confidence in financial statements of the public companies and the US security market, as well. Among 66 sections in total in SOX, the most contentious aspect, which has also made significant impacts on companies, is Section 404 (“SOX 404”) requiring management and the external auditors to assess the effectiveness of Internal Control over Financial Reporting (“ICFR”). The key point of contention is its stringent implementation and high compliance cost. In-depth interview and questionnaire survey methods were adopted in this case study to explore how the researched company (“the Company”) implemented its project in response to SOX 404 and then to have a detailed analysis based upon the answers and comments obtained from the interviewees and the questionnaire respondents. Suggestions are made at the end of the study. The study finds that 33.34% of the respondents agreed with the view that compliance with SOX 404 generates greater benefit than cost to the Company, while 17.34% were against it, and 49.33% remained neutral. Despite the fact that abiding by SOX may enhance the employees’ risk awareness, guide the company to reexamine its ICFR, add more credibility of financial reports, and conform to Group policy etc., both the interviewees and the respondents consider that there is room for improvement as far as SOX 404 project is concerned. For example, a full integration of the existing risk management mechanisms and also a great simplification of testing procedures and documentation requirements. Just as the CFO of the Company highlights the importance of molding enterprise culture, SOX 404 is also top-down, risk-based oriented. As a result, it is essential to set the right tone at the top. The Board of Directors, CEO, and CFO must give their full support for building a testing framework, which is cost-effective and keeps to SOX 404. By doing so, ICFR can be accurately assessed, and the reliability of financial reports can be virtually assured.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act made audit committees directly responsible for the appointment, compensation, and supervision of companies' auditors. Limited research in the auditor selection process and PCAOB inspections suggest that managers, not audit committees, may still be selecting the auditors, and that inspection reports are not useful. This study addresses both of these areas. This paper considers two theories of governance, Agency Theory and Institution Theory, to analyze the audit committee members' auditor selection process. The study examines whether Audit Committee Members use two specific types of audit quality indicators, other than managers' recommendation, in evaluating auditors. In a setting where the manager recommends the auditor, the auditors' inspection results (favorable/unfavorable) and a prior manager/auditor affiliation (absent/present) are manipulated in a between-subject research design, using financially literate professionals as a proxy for audit committee members. The study finds that audit quality perception and auditor selection are jointly determined. Inspection results are positively associated with audit quality perception and auditor selection. The nature of a manager-auditor affiliation is directly associated with audit quality perception and inversely related to auditor selection. Further, controlling for perception, audit committee members are more likely to recommend auditors with unfavorable inspection results, if a prior affiliation with management is present than if an affiliation is absent. Overall, the results indicate that audit committee members are diligent in evaluating auditors, and PCAOB inspection results are useful. The results of this study contribute to the audit committee effectiveness and PCAOB literature. / by Veena Looknanan-Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.