Ferry, Laurence and Eckersley, Peter orcid.org/0000-0001-9048-8529 (2015) Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector:act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’. Public Money and Management. pp. 203-210. ISSN 0954-0962
Abstract
This paper explains how the UK central government has changed accountability and audit arrangements for local government in England, while retaining its approach to setting annual budgets within the context of multi-year spending reviews. It highlights how dismantling the institutions and processes that monitored outputs and outcomes for spending, such as public service agreements and comprehensive area assessment, meant that top-down accountability became focused overwhelmingly on financial conformance rather than organizational performance for local government. Supplementary reforms to increase the transparency or ‘visibility’ of public administration, and thereby enable greater bottom-up accountability, have resulted in a performance assessment system that is neither rigorous nor standardized. The overall result is a weakening of local accountability arrangements.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details |
Keywords: | Accountability,audit,budgeting,central government,local government,public sector |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Environment and Geography (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 06 Oct 2022 14:50 |
Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2025 00:21 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:191789 |
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Description: Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’