IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/admini/v64y2016i1p1-27n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Benchmarking the financial performance of local councils in Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Robbins Geraldine

    (J. E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, and Whitaker Institute for Innovation and Societal Change, NUI Galway)

  • Turley Gerard

    (J. E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, and Whitaker Institute for Innovation and Societal Change, NUI Galway)

  • McNena Stephen

    (J. E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, and Whitaker Institute for Innovation and Societal Change, NUI Galway)

Abstract

It was over a quarter of a century ago that information from the financial statements was used to benchmark the efficiency and effectiveness of local government in the US. With the global adoption of New Public Management ideas, benchmarking practice spread to the public sector and has been employed to drive reforms aimed at improving performance and, ultimately, service delivery and local outcomes. The manner in which local authorities in OECD countries compare and benchmark their performance varies widely. The methodology developed in this paper to rate the relative financial performance of Irish city and county councils is adapted from an earlier assessment tool used to measure the financial condition of small cities in the US. Using our financial performance framework and the financial data in the audited annual financial statements of Irish local councils, we calculate composite scores for each of the thirty-four local authorities for the years 2007–13. This paper contributes composite scores that measure the relative financial performance of local councils in Ireland, as well as a full set of yearly results for a seven-year period in which local governments witnessed significant changes in their financial health. The benchmarking exercise is useful in highlighting those councils that, in relative financial performance terms, are the best/worst performers.

Suggested Citation

  • Robbins Geraldine & Turley Gerard & McNena Stephen, 2016. "Benchmarking the financial performance of local councils in Ireland," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 64(1), pages 1-27, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:admini:v:64:y:2016:i:1:p:1-27:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/admin-2016-0009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/admin-2016-0009
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/admin-2016-0009?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron, 2013. "Re-Theorizing Change: Institutional Experimentation and the Struggle for Domination in the Field of Public Accounting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 870-899, July.
    2. Gerard Turley & Geraldine Robbins & Stephen McNena, 2015. "A Framework to Measure the Financial Performance of Local Governments," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 401-420, May.
    3. Sabine Kuhlmann & Tim Jäkel, 2013. "Competing, collaborating or controlling? Comparing benchmarking in European local government," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 269-276, July.
    4. Isabel Brusca & Vicente Montesinos, 2006. "Are Citizens Significant Users of Government Financial Information?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 205-209, September.
    5. Geraldine Robbins & Irvine Lapsley, 2014. "The success story of the Eurozone crisis? Ireland's austerity measures," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 91-98, March.
    6. Chapman, Christopher S., 1997. "Reflections on a contingent view of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 189-205, February.
    7. Steve Martin & James Downe & Clive Grace & Sandra Nutley, 2013. "New development: All change? Performance assessment regimes in UK local government," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 277-280, July.
    8. Pollitt, Christopher & Bouckaert, Geert, 2004. "Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 2, number 9780199268498.
    9. José Luis Zafra-Gómez & Antonio Manuel López-Hernández & Agustin Hernández-Bastida, 2009. "Developing an alert system for local governments in financial crisis," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 175-181, May.
    10. Mark McAteer & Andrew Stephens, 2013. "New development: The role of benchmarking in supporting improvement in local government— Scottish and Welsh practitioners' perspectives," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 281-284, July.
    11. Jordan, Silvia & Messner, Martin, 2012. "Enabling control and the problem of incomplete performance indicators," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 544-564.
    12. Christopher Hood, 2007. "Public Service Management by Numbers: Why Does it Vary? Where Has it Come From? What Are the Gaps and the Puzzles?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 95-102, April.
    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. Vicente Pina & Patricia Bachiller & Lara Ripoll, 2020. "Testing the Reliability of Financial Sustainability. The Case of Spanish Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Gerard Turley & Stephen McNena, 2016. "An Analysis of Local Public Finances and the 2014 Local Government Reforms," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 299-326.

    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. Serena Santis, 2020. "The Demographic and Economic Determinants of Financial Sustainability: An Analysis of Italian Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Vicente Pina & Patricia Bachiller & Lara Ripoll, 2020. "Testing the Reliability of Financial Sustainability. The Case of Spanish Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Cäker, Mikael & Siverbo, Sven, 2018. "Effects of performance measurement system inconsistency on managers’ role clarity and well-being," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 256-266.
    4. Sonia Adam-Ledunois & Romuald Mansuy & Sébastien Damart, 2016. "An innovative tool for territorial shared diagnosis on poverty and social inclusion: a support for cooperation?," Post-Print hal-01445696, HAL.
    5. Crvelin, David & Becker, Albrecht, 2020. "‘The spirits that we summoned’: A study on how the ‘governed’ make accounting their own in the context of market-making programs in Nepal," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Yu, Lichen & Mouritsen, Jan, 2020. "Accounting, simultaneity and relative completeness: The sales and operations planning forecast and the enactment of the ‘demand chain’," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Sonia Adam-Ledunois & Romuald Mansuy & Sébastien Damart, 2016. "An innovative tool for territorial shared diagnosis on poverty and social inclusion: a support for cooperation?," Post-Print hal-01418698, HAL.
    8. Pasi Aaltola, 2019. "Strategic thinking and accounting: potentials and pitfalls from a managerial perspective," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 323-351, October.
    9. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    10. Jackline Akinyi Makojuang, MML & Brown Kitur, 2023. "Influence of Strategy Communication and Strategic Planning on Organisational Performance of International Schools in Kiambu County," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(11), pages 1905-1919, November.
    11. Francesca Francioli & Alberto Quagli, 2021. "Management accounting change and the rise of Vespa (1884-1965)," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(suppl. 2), pages 313-338.
    12. Everett, Jeff & Shiraz Rahaman, Abu & Neu, Dean & Saxton, Gregory, 2024. "Letters to the editor, institutional experimentation, and the public accounting professional," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    13. Hall, Matthew, 2010. "Accounting information and managerial work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28539, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. 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.
    15. Samuel Brazys & Aidan Regan, 2016. "These Little PIIGS Went to Market: Enterprise Policy and Divergent Recovery in European Periphery," Working Papers 201517, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    16. Maran, Laura & Bracci, Enrico & Funnell, Warwick, 2016. "Accounting and the management of power: Napoleon’s occupation of the commune of Ferrara (1796–1799)," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 60-78.
    17. Independent Evaluation Group, 2008. "Public Sector Reform: What Works and Why? An IEG evaluation of World Bank Support," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6484.
    18. Alessio Conti & Giovanni Vetritto, 2019. "ICT from Below: ELISA Program and the Innovation of Local Government in Italy," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 7(3), pages 70-92, May.
    19. repec:cuf:journl:y:2017:v:18:i:1:moreno-enguix is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Reid, Gavin C. & Smith, Julia A., 2009. "A coevolutionary analysis of organisational systems and processes: Quantitative applications to information system dynamics in small entrepreneurial firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 762-781.
    21. Yves Gendron & Laura F. Spira, 2009. "What Went Wrong? The Downfall of Arthur Andersen and the Construction of Controllability Boundaries Surrounding Financial Auditing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 987-1027, December.

    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:vrs:admini:v:64:y:2016:i:1:p:1-27:n:1. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    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.