Stuart Tooley

PERFORMANCE REPORTING BY MALAYSIAN LOCAL AUTHORITIES: IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDER NEEDS

The concept of public accountability promotes the need for a comprehensive set of performance-related information to satisfy the information needs of a diverse stakeholder interest group. However, literature concerned with the scope of information to be disclosed, and in particular within the context of a developing country, is limited. This paper identifies the information set which stakeholders of Malaysian local authorities consider relevant in the monitoring and assessment of local authority performance. Stakeholders indicated strong interest in performance information that is not traditionally disclosed in the financial statements: non-financial information particularly performance measurement of outputs, outcomes, efficiency and effectiveness. Disclosures in the Statement of Revenue and Expenditure and forward-looking information are generally regarded as the most important disclosures. The results of the study also indicate differences amongst stakeholders as to the level of importance that they place on certain items especially items related to internal policies and governance and financial position of the local authorities. The findings will be of significance to policy makers interested in improving the performance reporting of Malaysian public sector entities, particularly local authorities.

Digital reporting Formats, Users' Perception, Preferences and Performances

This study examines users� perceptions of three digital reporting formats: PDF, HTML and XBRL. Using public accounting practitioners as participants, this study examines users� perceptions of different reporting formats used in disseminating financial information. This study includes examining the link between users� perceptions and preferred reporting format and whether these perceptions are similar to the quality of their decision in the completion of a specific task. This study follows Davis (1989, p. 320) who defined perceptions into 2: perceived usefulness as �the degree a user believes that a particular aid would enhance his performance� and perceived ease of use as �the degree to which a user believes that using a particular aid would reduce or be free of effort�. The results indicate that users� perceptions of usefulness among the digital reporting formats differ significantly. However, perceptions of ease of use are similar across the three digital reporting formats. Users� perceptions are also found to influence their preferred reporting format. The findings also show that users� perceptions of usefulness are analogous to their decision accuracy for HTML and XBRL formats but not for PDF format. Perceptions of ease of use, however, do not correspond to actual cognitive effort for all reporting formats. The results indicate that if more advanced forms of digital reporting are to be encouraged, there is also the need for users to be made more aware of the benefits to be gained from the different forms of reporting.

Performance Reporting by Malaysian Local Authorities: Identifying Stakeholder Needs

The concept of public accountability promotes the need for a comprehensive set of performance-related information to satisfy the information needs of a diverse stakeholder interest group. However, literature concerned with the scope of information to be disclosed, and in particular within the context of a developing country, is limited. This paper identifies the information set which stakeholders of Malaysian local authorities consider relevant in the monitoring and assessment of local authority performance. Stakeholders indicated strong interest in performance information that is not traditionally disclosed in the financial statements: non-financial information particularly performance measurement of outputs, outcomes, efficiency and effectiveness. Disclosures in the Statement of Revenue and Expenditure and forward-looking information are generally regarded as the most important disclosures. The results of the study also indicate differences amongst stakeholders as to the level of importance that they place on certain items especially items related to internal policies and governance and financial position of the local authorities. The findings will be of significance to policy makers interested in improving the performance reporting of Malaysian public sector entities, particularly local authorities.

Budgeting in New Zealand secondary schools in a changing devolved financial management environment

Change in the New Zealand state education system during the 1980s brought about a transfer of responsibility for school financial management from the centre to the school level. The purpose of this paper is to report an investigation of how aspects of this devolved responsibility have been operationalised and managed in a secondary school setting.

Government research evaluations and academic freedom: a UK and Australian comparison

ABSTRACT Performance management systems have been an inevitable consequence of the development of government research evaluations (GREs) of university research, and have also inevitably affected the working life of academics. The aim of this paper is to track the development of GREs over the past 25 years, by critically evaluating their adoption in the UK and Australian higher education sector and their contribution to the commodification of academic labour, and to highlight the resultant tensions between GREs and academic freedom. The paper employs a literature-based analysis, relying on publicly available policy documents and academic studies over the period 1985–2010. GREs are a global phenomenon emanating from new public management reforms and while assessments of university research have been welcomed, they have attracted critique based on their design, the manner in which they have been applied, and the unintended consequences of their implementation on academic freedom in particular. Consistent with international research on the impact of GREs, Australian research assessments appear to be undoing the academic freedom that is central to successful research. Further empirical research on the impact of GREs on academics is urgently needed.

Do Not-For-Profits Need Their Own Conceptual Framework?

This paper raises the issue of whether not-for-profit (NFP) organisations require a conceptual framework that acknowledges their mission imperative and enables them to discharge their broader accountability. Relying on publicly available documentation and literature, it suggests that current conceptaul Frameworks for the for-profit and public sectors are inadequate in meeting the accountability needs of broader NFP-specific accountability and the formulation of NFP-appropriate reporting practice, including the provision of financial and non-financial reporting. The paper thus theoretically challenges existing financial reporting arrangements and investes debate on their future direction.

Stakeholders’ perceptions on the accountability of Malaysian local authorities

Purpose – This chapter aims to identify stakeholder perceptions on the service performance accountability of Malaysian local authorities. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey provides the primary source of information, and both descriptive and analytical methods are employed to support the analysis of the empirical findings. Findings – The chapter shows that despite a strong interest amongst stakeholders for greater accountability of Malaysian local authorities, a standard definition and scope of accountability has not emerged. However, the findings do indicate a new bond of accountability emerging between local authorities and its broader public than previously existed. Research limitations – The findings and discussion are limited to the propositions put forward in the questionnaire. Alternative research methods would complement the findings. Originality/value – The findings contribute to our understanding of accountability as interpreted by key stakeholders of local authorities located within the context of a developing country. This could potentially assist Malaysian public sector administrators whereby, and arguably, enhancing the public accountability of local authorities may contribute to an improvement in the performance management of Malaysian local authorities.

Accounting for volunteer services: a deficiency in accountability

Purpose - – The purpose of this study is to identify the extent to which not-for-profit (NFP) organisations disclose information on volunteer contributions of services. Design/methodology/approach - – The study relies on information disclosed in the web sites of NFP organisations. Findings - – This paper finds that disclosure was more prevalent on NFP web sites compared to digital annual report disclosures. This paper finds that more NFPs provided disclosure on the activities of their volunteers than other items pertaining to volunteers and the quantification and valuation of volunteer contributions were the least likely to be disclosed. Importantly, the findings illustrate an accountability deficiency in the comprehensiveness of disclosure which results in an under-representation of the contribution that volunteers provide to organisational sustainability and impact on mission fulfilment. Research limitations/implications - – The convenience sample size restricts further interrogation to tease out organisational characteristics that may influence current disclosure practices. Practical implications - – The findings contribute to international debate over the inclusion of volunteer contributions in the assessment of a NFPs accountability over its resources and ultimately the enhancement of its sustainability. Originality/value - – This exploratory study examines the current state of practice in the disclosure of volunteer contributions at an organisational level in the Australian context.

Performance Reporting: Assessing the Annual Reports of Malaysian Local Authorities

There have been calls for Malaysian local authorities to be more transparent and accountable in the discharge of their functional responsibilities. This study empirically evaluates the extent and quality of current performance reporting by local authorities. The disclosure of relevant information for discharging accountability obligations, as defined by a broad range of stakeholders, falls short of best practice. Therefore, the performance of Malaysian local authorities lacks transparency. The findings could assist in the development of more comprehensive guidelines for local authority reporting and raise awareness of information stakeholders expect to be reported in the context of accountability.

Observations on the imposition of New Public Management in the New Zealand state education system.

The enactment of the Education Act 1989 set in motion a reform agenda designed to restructure the New Zealand state school system. School-based management and decision-making lay at the heart of the reformed system. Responsibility for the administration of schools, previously held by the Department of Education and Regional Education Boards, was decentralised to boards of trustees of individual schools. The Act established a model of governance whereby the elected board of trustees were given responsibility for the management of their individual schools with “complete discretion to control the management of the school as it thinks fit” (s.75). Further, principals, as chief executives, were charged with managing the day-to-day administration of their schools. The philosophy of these reforms was consistent with the general thrust of restructuring and policy change that was occurring, at the time, within the wider public sector (Dale, 1994). Indeed, it was evident that the educational reforms had more to do with issues of performance, in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, than issues of curricula and pedagogy. Whilst the reforms undertaken in the wider sector were unprecedented they were, nonetheless, universally recognised for their conceptual rigour and intellectual coherence (Boston, et al., 1996). A notable feature was the theoretical underpinnings of the reforms providing an “analytical framework grounded in public choice, managerialism and new economics of organizations, most notably agency theory and transaction cost analysis” (Boston, 1992, p.2). Arguable, managerialism, or what is more commonly referred to as ‘new public management’ (NPM) (Hood, 1990), has had the most visible influence upon the restructuring of the public sector. According to Hood (1995), NPM has seen the ‘… lessening or removing differences between the public and private sectors and shifting the emphasis from process accountability towards a greater element of accountability in terms of results” (p.94). For Martin (1994, p.57), NPM represented the ‘debureaucratisation’ of the public service whereby bureaucratic control gives way to managerial responsibility. Hood (1991) noted seven characteristics, or what he terms ‘doctrinal components’, of the NPM approach: (1) financial devolution to service providers, (2) explicit standards and measures of performance, (3) clear differentiation between inputs, outputs and outcomes, (4) increased accountability of service providers, (5) private sector styles of management practice, (6) increased competition and contracting between service providers, and (7) greater stress on efficiency, economy and effectiveness of resource usage. Using Hood’s (1991) seven ‘doctrinal components’ of NPM it is possible to conclude that the educational reforms undertaken in New Zealand are an expression, albeit incompletely, of NPM thinking (Painter, 1988; Self, 1993). The key feature of the reforms was the devolution of financial resources to the school site. In the process it has strengthened the position of the central funding agency and hence accountability. Further, the delegated budget enables a shift in emphasis from input to output (results) accountability. Competition between schools is encouraged through the removal of school zoning restrictions (open admissions). Scarcity of resources has seen schools enter into contracts for the provision of inter-school services and facilities (sporting, technology etc.). Less evident is the enforcement of performance standards. Although Statements of Service Performance are statutorily required, the design and measurement of performance standards is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, external agencies such as the Education Review Office do monitor and appraise the performance of schools with publicly released reports.