Andrew Likierman

Performance indicators: 20 early lessons from managerial use

Performance indicators are a valuable managerial tool if properly used; if not, managerial time and cash resources could be wasted, and, more seriously, managerial action could be distorted. This article provides 20 valuable lessons in the use of performance indicators. They are the result of a three‐year research project involving discussions and written feedback from 500 middle‐ and senior‐grade public service managers using performance indicators.

Planning and Controlling UK Public Expenditure on a Resource Basis

The UK Government has, from 2003/04, completed the transition from planning and controlling public expenditure in cash to the full implementation of resource budgeting. Accounting had already switched to the resource basis, with effect from 2001/02. The 2002 Spending Review was the first biennial review of future spending levels and priorities to be conducted entirely on a resource basis. This article clarifies what was involved in this transition, paying attention to how it made the 2002 Spending Review different from its predecessors. Changes in both the fiscal framework and the accounting and budgeting systems have been designed to improve decision making at departmental level, and to improve information flows to Parliament and the public.

Ethical dilemmas for accountants: A United Kingdom perspective

The paper provides an introduction to some of the professional ethical dilemmas facing an accountant in the United Kingdom. The first part deals with those dilemmas which accountants would normally accept are covered by the term “ethics”. These include the problems associated with adequately fulfilling a duty to shareholders and conflicts of interest (including whistleblowing) by the accountant acting as independent auditor or as an employee. The second part deals with wider aspects of ethical dilemmas stemming from reconciling the implicit understanding that the accountant is being objective with the fact that accounting rules make it very difficult to sustain that objectivity.

Resource Accounting and Budgeting—Where are we Now?

The project to introduce Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) into central government is now at about the half-way stage and this article sets out how it is progressing. For those who are newcomers to this field, the figure overleaf gives the outline details of RAB. More detailed information is available in a wide variety of official publications, a selection of which is included in the bibliography.

From Planning to Implementation: The New UK Central Government Financial Framework

This article provides an outline of the new arrangements for resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) in central government and Parliament. The author discusses some of the issues involved in the full implementation of RAB. He updates the position set out in two previous ‘Public Money & Management’ articles (Likierman, 1998a and 1998b), which described the background to the project and its progress. Some benefits of the new financial arrangements are already evident, the challenge now is to maximize the potential of what they can offer.

Parliament and public spending

The Select Committee on the Treasury & Civil Service has been lobbying for improvements in the Governments presentation of public expenditure information to Parliament At last, it looks as though changes will be made. But will the House of Commons — and, in particular, the select committees — be able to seize the opportunity?

Successful Leadership - How Would You Know?

Boardrooms and business school classrooms are equally preoccupied with leadership, and success is often assumed to be about profit or Total Shareholder Return. Its neither. For leaders wanting to measure their own success, for those who appoint leaders to know what they are aiming at and for outsiders assessing the quality of leadership, shows how to do it.

Nationalised industries: Accounting for inflation

With inflation an uncomfortable fact of life, inflation accounting is here to stay. But the introduction of the current cost system is still sending tremors through the accounting profession. How have the nationalised industries coped?

The Impact of Financial Constraints

Uneasiness about the financial aspects of the relationship between the nationalised industries and the government has existed ever since the industries were brought into public ownership.1 Current preoccupations about cash constraints and the impact of other financial problems are therefore no more than the latest chapter in the long-running saga of complaints, charges and counter-charges. But these preoccupations are only one manifestion of much wider problems in the relationship between the industries and the government of the kind outlined in other chapters (particularly those by Byatt, Grieve Smith, Harrison and Richardson) and which have been the subject of debate for many years. There have been no less than five major attempts in the last sixteen years to resolve these problems.2 The continuingly high level of voluble dissatisfaction about the relationship indicates that none has laid the matter to rest.