IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/pubmmg/v35y2015i3p203-210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three 'accountability and audit arrangements'

Author

Listed:
  • Laurence Ferry
  • Peter Eckersley

Abstract

This paper explains how the UK central government has changed accountability and audit arrangements for local government in England, while retaining its approach to setting annual budgets within the context of multi-year spending reviews. It highlights how dismantling the institutions and processes that monitored outputs and outcomes for spending, such as public service agreements and comprehensive area assessment, meant that top-down accountability became focused overwhelmingly on financial conformance rather than organizational performance for local government. Supplementary reforms to increase the transparency or 'visibility' of public administration, and thereby enable greater bottom-up accountability, have resulted in a performance assessment system that is neither rigorous nor standardized. The overall result is a weakening of local accountability arrangements.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurence Ferry & Peter Eckersley, 2015. "Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three 'accountability and audit arrangements'," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 203-210, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmmg:v:35:y:2015:i:3:p:203-210
    DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sheila Ellwood & Javier Garcia-Lacalle, 2012. "New development: Local public audit—the changing landscape," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 389-392, September.
    2. Christopher Humphrey & Asad Kausar & Anne Loft & Margaret Woods, 2011. "Regulating Audit beyond the Crisis: A Critical Discussion of the EU Green Paper," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 431-457, June.
    3. Jane Broadbent & James Guthrie, 2008. "Public sector to public services: 20 years of “contextual” accounting research," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(2), pages 129-169, February.
    4. Radcliffe, Vaughan S., 1999. "Knowing efficiency: the enactment of efficiency in efficiency auditing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 333-362, May.
    5. Hood, Christopher, 1995. "The "new public management" in the 1980s: Variations on a theme," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(2-3), pages 93-109.
    6. Funnell, Warwick, 2011. "Keeping secrets? Or what government performance auditors might not need to know," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 714-721.
    7. Eckersley, Peter & Ferry, Laurence & Zakaria, Zamzulaila, 2014. "A ‘panoptical’ or ‘synoptical’ approach to monitoring performance? Local public services in England and the widening accountability gap," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 529-538.
    8. Sheila Ellwood, 2014. "Debate: Autonomy, governance, accountability and a new audit regime," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 139-141, March.
    9. Christopher Pollitt, 2010. "Cuts and reforms — Public services as we move into a new era," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 32(1), pages 17-31, June.
    10. Sinclair, Amanda, 1995. "The chameleon of accountability: Forms and discourses," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(2-3), pages 219-237.
    11. Shaoul, Jean & Stafford, Anne & Stapleton, Pamela, 2012. "Accountability and corporate governance of public private partnerships," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 213-229.
    12. Irvine Lapsley, 2009. "New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?1," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(1), pages 1-21, March.
    13. Laurence Ferry & Peter Eckersley, 2012. "Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act 2 ‘the annual budget’," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 119-126, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Richards & Sam Warner & Martin J Smith & Diane Coyle, 2023. "Crisis and state transformation: Covid-19, levelling up and the UK’s incoherent state," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(1), pages 31-48.
    2. Katarzyna Aleksandra Wόjtowicz & Sabina Hodžić, 2022. "Financial Resilience in the Face of Turbulent Times: Evidence from Poland and Croatian Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-16, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eckersley, Peter & Ferry, Laurence & Zakaria, Zamzulaila, 2014. "A ‘panoptical’ or ‘synoptical’ approach to monitoring performance? Local public services in England and the widening accountability gap," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 529-538.
    2. Cooper, Christine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2021. "Hillsborough: The fight for accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Hyndman, Noel & McKillop, Donal, 2018. "Public services and charities: Accounting, accountability and governance at a time of change," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 143-148.
    4. Younes Belfellah & David Carassus, 2016. "L'Accountability dans l'entreprise publique : Revue de littérature et proposition d'un cadre d'analyse," Post-Print hal-01902221, HAL.
    5. Becker, Sebastian D. & Jagalla, Tobias & Skærbæk, Peter, 2014. "The translation of accrual accounting and budgeting and the reconfiguration of public sector accountants’ identities," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 324-338.
    6. Ashraf, Junaid & Uddin, Shahzad, 2016. "New public management, cost savings and regressive effects: A case from a less developed country," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 18-33.
    7. Tóth, Balázs, 2021. "Milyen kapcsolatban állnak a közszféra reformjai a gazdaságpolitikai paradigmákkal? [How reforms of the public sector relate to the paradigms of economic policy]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 205-222.
    8. Md. Mahmudul Alam & Jamaliah Said & Mohamad Azizal Abd Aziz, 2018. "Role of integrity system, internal control system and leadership practices on the accountability practices in the public sectors of Malaysia," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(7), pages 955-976, December.
    9. Heli Hookana, 2011. "Measurement of Effectiveness, Efficiency and Quality in Public Sector Services: Interventionist Empirical Investigations," MIC 2011: Managing Sustainability? Proceedings of the 12th International Conference, Portorož, 23–26 November 2011 [Selected Papers],, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper.
    10. Ferry, Laurence & Zakaria, Zamzulaila & Zakaria, Zarina & Slack, Richard, 2018. "Framing public governance in Malaysia: Rhetorical appeals through accrual accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 170-183.
    11. Mutiganda, Jean Claude, 2013. "Budgetary governance and accountability in public sector organisations: An institutional and critical realism approach," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 518-531.
    12. Hidayah, Nunung Nurul & Amyar, Firdaus & Lowe, Alan, 2024. "Therapeutic governance: The art of mediating shame and blame and quasi-judicial pragmatic technologies in Indonesian government auditor-auditee engagements," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    13. Louise Kl00t, 2006. "Budget Reporting in Local Government: Problem or Solution?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 16(40), pages 72-81, November.
    14. Funnell, Warwick & Wade, Margaret, 2012. "Negotiating the credibility of performance auditing," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 434-450.
    15. Hyndman, Noel & Liguori, Mariannunziata & Meyer, Renate E. & Polzer, Tobias & Rota, Silvia & Seiwald, Johann, 2014. "The translation and sedimentation of accounting reforms. A comparison of the UK, Austrian and Italian experiences," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 388-408.
    16. Allan Barton, 2009. "The Use and Abuse of Accounting in the Public Sector Financial Management Reform Program in Australia," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(2), pages 221-248, June.
    17. Marcel Van Rinsum & Frank H.M. Verbeeten, 2012. "The impact of subjectivity in performance evaluation practices on public sector managers’ motivation," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 377-396, September.
    18. Macinati, Manuela S. & Anessi-Pessina, E., 2014. "Management accounting use and financial performance in public health-care organisations: Evidence from the Italian National Health Service," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 98-111.
    19. Lodovico Gherardi & Anna Maria Linsalata & Enrico Deidda Gagliardo & Rebecca Levy Orelli, 2021. "Accountability and Reporting for Sustainability and Public Value: Challenges in the Public Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Lucia Biondi & Enrico Bracci, 2018. "Sustainability, Popular and Integrated Reporting in the Public Sector: A Fad and Fashion Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:pubmmg:v:35:y:2015:i:3:p:203-210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPMM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.