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Reforming Australian public sector accounting: An episode of institutional thinking.Potter, Bradley N, mikewood@deakin.edu.au January 2003 (has links)
In recent years in Australia, accounting reforms have been developed which have resulted in the application of commercial systems of accounting to diverse public sector organisations. The reforms, which include the requirement to recognise infrastructure and heritage resources as assets in financial reports, endorse financial notions of accountability and performance that have been traditionally applied within private sector, profit-seeking organisations. Such notions are applied to a range of public sector organisations for the first time, even though the primary missions or objectives of many of these organisations are social, rather than financial in orientation. This critical, interpretative case study, set within the context of not-for-profit public museums, seeks to enhance an understanding of public sector accounting change based on these unique social organisations.
The study examines three aspects of the reforms, namely, their development, their promotion and their defence. This examination is undertaken using the ideas contained in Mary Douglas (1986) How Institutions Think as the key theoretical construct. The supplementary perspectives of problematisation and epistemic communities are used to assist in applying the primary theoretical construct by explaining how, and by whom, these reforms were advocated and implemented in this specific instance. The study shows how the interpretation and application of the statements comprising the conceptual framework have shaped the development, promotion and defence of detailed standards developed for specific public sector organisations. In doing so, the study addresses two key research questions: (1) How were financial notions of accountability and performance of Australian public sector organisations constructed during the period 1976-2001 and articulated in the CF, once its development began, within this reform period? (2) How were these notions and other concepts of financial reporting outlined in the CF interpreted and applied in the (i) development; (ii) promotion; and (iii) defence of detailed accounting standards for not-for-profit public museums in Australia during the period under investigation?
The study demonstrates that the concepts of financial reporting outlined in the conceptual framework were used by a relatively small group of technical experts located in influential positions in accounting regulation and in other fields to justify the application of accrual accounting within diverse public sector organisations. During the period examined, only certain questions were posed and certain issues considered and many problems associated with the implementation of the reforms were not considered. Accordingly, a key finding of the study is that each aspect of the reform period was guided and constrained by institutional thinking. In addition, the study shows how the framework's content can be used to permit equally well-argued, but conflicting, accounting policies to be adopted and defended for the same items, indicating the framework to be of only limited value as a technical tool. This leads to another key finding of the study, namely, that the framework is best understood as a political tool, serving a crucial role in enabling accrual accounting reforms to be developed, promoted and defended within the public sector. Thus, the study seeks to offer an enhanced understanding of the nature and determinants of accounting change, and accordingly, it broadens an understanding of the use of the conceptual framework, as an institution, in developing, promoting and defending changes to accounting practice.
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Mass Immigration in Sweden: Economic Gain or Drain?Daza Moreno, Onasis Fernando, Barzo Ali, Aland January 2024 (has links)
This thesis explores and reviews extensively previous studies on the economic impact of mass immigration on Sweden with a special interest in the native population, addressing the widespread belief that the inflow of immigrants means a strain on the country's resources and negatively affects the natives. The research distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary migration and examines their respective contributions and challenges to economic growth, educational opportunities, and social mobility. Using literature and data from Statistiska Centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden)(SCB), Migrationsverket (Swedish migration services), and various empirical and theoretical studies, the research conducts an extensive literature review and analyzes whether immigration acts as an economic gain or drain for Sweden. Key aspects analyzed in the literature include but are not limited to employment dynamics, country of origin, age distribution, and education levels of immigrants. The findings uncover a complex interplay between the economic benefits and challenges posed by immigration, highlighting mixed outcomes in terms of labor market integration, wage impacts and public welfare contributions. This comprehensive analysis aims to provide a nuanced understanding of how mass immigration impacts Sweden's economy and the welfare of its native population. Keywords: Immigration, Public sector finance, native impact, fiscal effect
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The study of the audit expectations gap in the public sector of MalaysiaMat Daud, Zaidi January 2007 (has links)
The audit expectations gap is a prominent issue in the private sector. However, in the public sector, the audit expectations gap is an emerging issue that has received little attention by reseachers. To date, only a limited number of studies on the audit expectations gap in the public sector are available, either in the context of a financial audit or a performance audit. This study focused on the audit expectations gap in the context of the latter. The importance of the performance audit function in the Malaysian public sector, combined with recent developments related to this type of audit in the country (such as increasing expectations among the users and associated problems in practice) were the reasons for conducting the study in this area. Thus, the study aims to identify the existence of the audit expectations gap in the Malaysian public sector. In achieving this objective, it explores the perceptions of auditors and Public Account Committee (PAC) members, auditees and ‘other users’ (consisting of journalists, politicians and academics). The conceptual framework in this study was developed based on Chowdhury’s (1996) and Porter’s (1993) approaches. Utilising the accountability-based framework as suggested by Chowdhury, six audit concepts (auditor independence, auditor competence, audit scope, auditor ethics, audit reporting and auditing standards) were examined. Porter’s model was subsequently utilised to identify the nature and the components of the gap. This study employed two types of research methods: interviews and audit report analysis. Interviews were conducted with 37 participants comprising of auditors, PAC members, auditees and ‘other users’. The second research method involved the examination of four performance audit reports. The findings of this study indicated that the audit expectations gap exists in the Malaysian public sector in the context of performance auditing. The analysis of interviews and audit reports clearly suggest that the audit expectations gap exists over a number of auditing issues. These comprise fraud detection exercises, the influence of management, executive and other parties on auditors, outsourcing the audit to private audit firms, content and format of the audit report and extending the audit mandate to cover the question of merits of policy.
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Return on investment in the public sectorBigham, Joshua D., Goudreau, Thomas R. 12 1900 (has links)
Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / In an environment of scarce resources and rising federal deficits the people not only expect, but demand greater accountability for the spending of public funds. This demand has created a trend in the public sector, not only in the United States, but worldwide as well, towards the importation of private sector business practices to improve accountability-oriented analysis. One example is increased emphasis on return on investment (ROI) analysis in public sector organizations. Development and application of ROI analysis is challenging in the public sector since most government organizations do not generate profit necessary for calculation of ROI in the manner in which it is done in the private sector. This thesis develops the methodology necessary for use of ROI analysis in the public sector. ROI methodology is applied for test evaluation with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego. The test demonstrates that ROI can be applied successfully to assess the relative efficiency of value-added work and to improve the process of choosing between investment alternatives. Properly designed ROI analysis reveals how and for what goods and services money is spent and provides a means for comparing the value derived from investment and work performed. / Lieutenant, United States Navy
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Financování projektů z fondů EU / Project Financing from EU FundsKovalčík, Martin January 2010 (has links)
Projects finance by funds of European Union deals about possibilities and assessment of investments to the projects which bring the benefit to public sector at the level regions, but also as whole for society. On this account can be financed from means of company of EU. The aim diploma thesis is finding factural prospectus in select sector and choose variants of realization. On the basis ascertained records these variants analyze and financially valorize. The thesis will be resolved reconstruction project memorable buildings in the city center Bohumín, thus create new spaces for public library facilities and training center for commercial and non-commercial nature.
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