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'Net debt' is considered an important measure of the financial strength of a government and is currently a required line item on the 'statement of financial position' in Canadian government financial statements. In this article, the authors look at the emergence, evolution and entrenchment of net debt in the public accounts of the Government of Canada. They trace the history of this financial indicator through a study of archival data from the Province of Canada and the Government of Canada and interpret the data using Klaus Luder's contingency model of public-sector accounting innovations. La << dette nette >> est censee etre une mesure importante de la solidite financiere d'un gouvernement et c'est a l'heure actuelle un element qui doit figurer obligatoirement au << bilan >> des etats financiers du gouvernement canadien. Dans cet article, les auteurs examinent l'emergence, l'evolution et l'ancrage de la << dette nette >> dans les comptes publics du gouvernement du Canada. Ils passent en revue l'histoire de cet indicateur financier par le biais d'une etude historique en utilisant des donnees d'archives de la province du Canada et du gouvernement du Canada et ils interpretent ces donnees en utilisant le modele de substitution de Klaus Luder pour les innovations comptables dans le secteur public., The issue of how the public accounts can best support good government decision-making and accountability to Parliament is of concern to departments of finance, government auditors, members of Parliament, the [...]

WHY HAS SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT LAGGED BEHIND virtually every other region of the world over the last five decades? Scholars agree that a unique combination of domestic factors (such as [...]

Globalization has revealed a need for accounting language simplification and harmonization, both for business and Public Administration. However, many countries have recently undertaken governmental accounting and financial reporting reforms in order to increase transparency and accountability towards taxpayers and, more generally, all stakeholders. Given that a standardized model does not exist, this study compares Italy, the European Union, and the United States in order to highlight similarities and differences between their current accounting and financial reporting models, to understand if common elements exist, and to verify if they are coherent with international trends concerning public sector accounting reforms.

Governments in Canada have recently been exploring new accountability measures within intergovernmental relations. Public reporting has become the preferred mechanism in a range of policy areas, including early learning and child-care, and the authors assess its effectiveness as an accountability measure. The article is based on their experience with a community capacity-building project that considers the relationship between the public policy, funding and accountability mechanisms under the federal/provincial/territorial agreements related to child-care. The authors argue that in its current form, public reporting has not lived up to its promise of accountability to citizens. This evaluation is based on the standards that governments have set for themselves under the federal/provincial/territorial agreements, as well as guidelines set by the Public Sector Accounting Board, an independent body that develops accounting standards over time through consultation with governments. Les gouvernements au Canada ont etudie recemment de nouvelles mesures de reddition de comptes dans les relations intergouvernementales. La presentation de rapports destines au public est devenue le mecanisme privilegie dans une variete de domaines de politiques, notamment dans celui de l'education et de la garde de la petite enfance, et les auteurs evaluent son efficacite en tant que mesure de reddition de comptes. L'article est fonde sur l'experience tiree d'un projet communautaire de renforcement des capacites qui etudie les liens entre les politiques publiques, le financement et les mecanismes de reddition de comptes dans le cadre des accords federaux-provinciaux-territoriaux se rapportant a la garde des enfants. Les auteurs soutiennent que, sous sa forme actuelle, la presentation de rapports au public n'a pas tenu ses promesses de reddition de comptes envers les citoyens. Cette evaluation repose sur les normes que les gouvernements ont etablies pour eux-memes en vertu des accords federaux-provinciaux-territoriaux, ainsi que sur les lignes directrices etablies par le Conseil sur la comptabilite dans le secteur public (CCSP), organisme independant qui elabore des normes comptables au fil du temps par le biais de consultations avec les gouvernements., Governments in Canada have shown growing interest in accountability and citizen engagement, including within federalism. The 1999 accountability provisions of the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) emphasize 'collaborative' federalism, public [...]

The effect of administrative capacity of regional governments on the evolution of cohesive regional policies for the implementation of structural funds in objective 1 regions of southern Italy is examined.

This study examines the relationship between work-family conflict, employment expectations, and length of stay in public accounting. Length of stay is modeled as a function of demographic factors and job [...]

This article explores the potential of the collaborative approach for local government program evaluation, particularly programs administered by nonprofits. City budget staff in Charlotte, North Carolina, partnered with the nonprofit in charge of a special tax district in a collaborative evaluation (CE) to assess the district's impact. An examination of this experience suggests that CEs are costly in terms of time and staff resources and raises questions about cooption and bias. However, it also suggests the promise of increased communication and better relations between local governments and nonprofits, improved evaluation skills of program staff, and increased likelihood of utilization of evaluation results'. KEYWORDS: accountability, collaborative evaluation, local government program evaluation

We present evidence on components of productivity change in the public accounting industry toward the end of the 20th century. Using revenue and human resource data from 64 of the 100 largest public accounting firms in the United States for the 1995-1999 period, we analyze productivity change, technical progress, and relative efficiency change over time. The average public accounting firm experienced a productivity growth of 9.5% between 1995 and 1999. We find support for the hypothesis that technical progress rather than an improvement in relative efficiency was the reason for this productivity growth. Firms that were early movers into management advisory services (MAS) and those that emphasized growth in MAS over growth in the traditional audit and tax services enjoyed significantly higher productivity growth than their peers. These firms also contributed significantly more to the industry's technical progress. Key words: public accounting; productivity change; technical progress; relative efficiency; management advisory services; auditing; taxation services, 1. Introduction A dramatic and dynamic transformation characterized the public accounting industry in the last few years of the past millennium. Global competition and technological change had a significant impact [...]