Mary Bowerman

The new social audits: accountability, managerial capture or the agenda of social champions?

Drawing upon a series of interviews conducted with leading practitioners and opinion formulators in the social, ethical and environmental audit arena, together with an extensive review of recent literature in the area, this paper offers a critical appraisal of current developments in the newly revitalized social audit movement. We particularly question whether in their enthusiasm for bringing social audit into the mainstream of current business thinking its advocates risk compromising the democratic ideals of the founding fathers of the movement. A particular concern raised is that without real change in corporate governance structures, social audit could become monopolized by consultants and/or corporate management and hence amount to little more than a skilfully controlled public relations exercise.

The evolution of benchmarking in UK local authorities

Explores issues surrounding the recent evolution of benchmarking in the UK public sector with particular regard to local authorities. Argues that what is being done in the name of benchmarking in UK local authorities is fundamentally different to the current understanding of benchmarking practice in the private sector. Despite these differences, and somewhat ironically, the development of benchmarking in the public sector pre‐dates its popularity in the private sector. In the public sector, benchmarking is frequently in response to central government requirements, or is used for defensive reasons rather than striving for performance gains. These themes are captured in two new benchmarking typologies: compulsory and voluntary models of benchmarking. Concludes that: the reasons for benchmarking in the public sector are confused; pressures for accountability in the public sector may militate against real performance improvement; and an appropriate balance between the use of benchmarking for control and improvement purposes is yet to be achieved.

Benchmarking as a Tool for the Modernisation of Local Government

This paper examines benchmarking as a tool of the modernisation process in local government and the contradictory tensions in the Best Value scheme are explored. Benchmarking is shown to encapsulate the dichotomous nature of a modernising philosophy which espouses innovation and local solutions alongside the government’s centralising tendencies. One consequence is the advancement of ‘compulsory’ and ‘defensive’ modes of benchmarking with local authorities benchmarking for external accountability reasons; issues of tangible improvement are secondary concerns. These tensions are viewed as irreconcilable, the implication is that local government will need to carefully manage and evaluate its benchmarking activities.

Benchmarking in local government under a central government agenda

Examines the practical experience of benchmarking in the UK local government sector during the period leading to the introduction of an important policy initiative for local government under “New Labour”. Argues that, under conditions of fiscal control, benchmarking has been subsumed under the wider practice of performance measurement in the sector. A critical factor is the primacy of the role of performance monitoring in local government, which in turn results from the controlling nature (in fiscal and political terms) of UK central government. The corollary is a conflation of two distinct views of benchmarking: benchmarking as a rigorous and challenging scrutiny of local government processes; and benchmarking as an instrument of central government control. Such a state of affairs would appear to offer a number of advantages to those policy makers whose blueprint for the reform of local government encourages the use of benchmarking across the sector.

In Search of the Audit Society: Some Evidence from Health Care, Police and Schools

Claims that we are moving towards an ‘audit society’ (Power 1994, 1997) are fuelled by the emergence of a wealth of audit and other performance monitoring initiatives. To date, however, very little empirical evidence has been gathered on the precise nature, role and scope of this ‘society’. This paper draws on academic literature, official and unofficial reports and interviews with auditors, inspectors and auditees across three major public service organisations. The paper argues that audit is just one aspect of a broader, but rapidly evolving, ‘performance measurement society’; other important elements of which include the growth of inspection and self-assessment. Public sector audit emerges as an increasingly questionable function. The remainder of the paper dismantles some of the myths associated with its practice, particularly regarding its public visibility and contribution in terms of enhancing processes of public service delivery, management and accountability.

Isomorphism Without Legitimacy? The Case of the Business Excellence Model in Local Government

The White Paper ‘Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People’ suggested the Business Excellence Model as a way for local authorities to demonstrate Best Value in service delivery. The author uses the concept of isomorphism, developed within institutional theory, to explain the progress of the Model in local government. She draws out some important lessons: first, central government needs to be beware of its ability to create coercive isomorphic forces, which can lead to unintended consequences. Second, local authorities should embark on new initiatives only if they are convinced of a practical benefit to the organization. Alternatively, where conferment of legitimacy is the desired result, they should wait until the bandwagon is well and truly rolling towards a named destination before they join it.

The Role of Local Authority Accountants in Environmental Decision-Making

This research used case studies in decision-making for environmental issues as a means to observe the role of management accountants in English local government. We found that while environmental considerations are important in local authorities, there is a lack of available accounting techniques to address them. The decisions we examined were made through an informal, essentially party political, process in which the accountants` role was limited to legitimising decisions.

Local government internal auditors’ perceptions of the Audit Commission

Reflects on the findings of a questionnaire survey of senior local government internal auditors. The questionnaire elicited views of the internal auditors on the usefulness of the comparative performance information and national reports produced by the Audit Commission. It also asked about perceptions of the emerging audit regime proposed under best value. The findings suggest that internal audit is not wholly convinced about the usefulness of the outputs of their external audit counterparts and do not expect to see major positive impacts as a result of the extended role of external monitoring proposed under best value.

Limiting the Scope of Central Government Audit: A Constitutional Problem or a Sensible Solution

A comprehensive system of performance measurement for all UK central government departments was introduced in 1998. Each department now has ‘high level and focused commitments’ or Public Service Agreements (PSAs) with the Treasury plus detailed departmental targets (Service Delivery Agreements or SDAs). Each PSA includes statements of central government departmental aims and objectives, allocated resources, key performance targets and details of how departments propose to increase the productivity of their operations (see Cm 4181 1998).