Transparency and Public Accountability Fiscal Mismanagement Lack of Public Accountability


Book Description

This Book appallingly unravels insights into fiscal mismanagement devoid of public accountability, under the purview of IMF, World Bank, ADB, international developmental agencies, et al. Perverse amnesties were surreptitiously enacted into law by Parliament, transgressing the social contract and public trust doctrine, also frustrating the right of the citizenry to challenge their constitutionality. Amnesties granted immunity and pardon for offences, such as, terrorism funding, money laundering, drug peddling, human trafficking, proceeds of crime, etc., in contravention of international conventions, including UN Security Council Resolution on terrorism financing. The Supreme Court condemned the Statute, as 'inimical to the rule of law', 'violative of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights', and 'had defrauded public revenue, causing extensive loss to the State'. Consequent controversy resulted in the ouster of the Government, with the new Government repealing the perverse law; however, with strange resistance against enforcement ! The Book also reveals how Parliament ignored an Auditor General's Special Report on gross negligence of revenue administration and colossal VAT frauds, with tardy enforcement of the 'rule of law'. ! The Book also deals with challenges in the Supreme Court against the Appropriation Bill, the Budget, for non-disclosure of borrowings and for lacking transparency, with the Ministry of Finance being castigated for operating a 'Budget within a Budget', with dubious expenditures, sans accountability. This Book reveals realities in fiscal mismanagement at highest levels, disclosing indifference and condoning by international agencies ! This is an invaluable Book for advocates of good governance and combat of economic crime, fraud and corruption, and those interested in public finance and law, and constitutional obligations of social contract and public trust.




Transparency in Government Operations


Book Description

Transparency in government operations is widely regarded as an important precondition for macroeconomic fiscal sustainability, good governance, and overall fiscal rectitude. Notably, the Interim Committee, at its April and September 1996 meetings, stressed the need for greater fiscal transparency. Prompted by these concerns, this paper represents a first attempt to address many of the aspects of transparency in government operations. It provides an overview of major issues in fiscal transparency and examines the IMF's role in promoting transparency in government operations.







Finding the Money


Book Description

Finding the Money focuses on those areas of government most exposed to grand or petty corruption: budgeting, tax administration, public procurement, and management of government assets. The eight chapters collected in this volume are based on the assumption that corruption has systemic causes. By improving social accountability mechanisms and by increasing the institutional and human capacities of government, malfunctioning states and municipalities can be transformed. The anti-corruption techniques presented here go well beyond the introduction of political control mechanisms, expanding transparency, or revising the compact between the state and private service organizations to recommend the steps needed for fiscal transparency and good governance. Public sector integrity also depends on governments' capacity to introduce these measures, the incentives to comply set by intergovernmental fiscal relations, the use of audit and the shortest route of accountability, i.e., its direct influence by customers on service providers. Book jacket.




Improving Fiscal Transparency to Raise Government Efficiency and Reduce Corruption Vulnerabilities in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe


Book Description

This departmental paper investigates how countries in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) can improve fiscal transparency, thereby raising government efficiency and reducing corruption vulnerabilities.




Open Budgets


Book Description

A Brookings Institution Press and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation publication Decisions about "who gets what, when, and how" are perhaps the most important that any government must make. So it should not be remarkable that around the world, public officials responsible for public budgeting are facing demands—from their own citizenry, other government officials, economic actors, and increasingly from international sources—to make their patterns of spending more transparent and their processes more participatory. Surprisingly, rigorous analysis of the causes and consequences of fiscal transparency is thin at best. Open Budgets seeks to fill this gap in existing knowledge by answering a few broad questions: How and why do improvements in fiscal transparency and participation come about? How are they sustained over time? When and how do increased fiscal transparency and participation lead to improved government responsiveness and accountability? Contributors: Steven Friedman (Rhodes University/University of Johannesburg); Jorge Antonio Alves (Queens College, CUNY) and Patrick Heller (Brown University); Jong-sung You (University of California—San Diego) and Wonhee Lee (Hankyung National University); John M. Ackerman (National Autonomous University of Mexico and Mexican Law Review); Aaron Schneider (University of Denver) and Annabella España-Najéra (California State University–Fresno); Barak D. Hoffman (Georgetown University); Jonathan Warren and Huong Nguyen (University of Washington); Linda Beck (University of Maine–Farmington and Columbia University), E. H. Seydou Nourou Toure (Institut Fondamental de l'Afrique Noire), and Aliou Faye (Senegal Ministry of the Economy and Finance).




Public Sector Transparency and Accountability Making it Happen


Book Description

This publication presents the papers discussed at the Latin American Forum on Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in the Public Sector that took place on 5-6 December 2001. The Forum approved policy recommendations that reflect the shared experience of Member countries of the OECD and the OAS.




The Oxford Handbook Public Accountability


Book Description

Drawing on the best scholars in the field from around the world, this handbook showcases conceptual and normative as well as the empirical approaches in public accountability studies.




Accountable Governance


Book Description

Public accountability is a hallmark of modern democratic governance and the foundation of the popular performance management movement. Democracy is just an empty exercise if those in power cannot be held accountable in public for their acts and omissions, for their decisions, their policies, and their expenditures. This book offers a finely detailed and richly informed consideration of accountability in both government and the contemporary world of governance. Twenty-five leading experts cover varying aspects of the accountability movement, including multiple and competing accountabilities, measuring accountability, accountability and democratic legitimacy, and accountability and information technology, and apply them to governments, quasi-governments, non-government organizations, governance organizations, and voluntary organizations. Together they provide the most comprehensive consideration of accountability currently available, with a blend of theoretical, empirical, and applied approaches.




Preventing Fraud and Mismanagement in Government


Book Description

Dig to the root of public fraud with deep exploration of theory, standards, and norms Preventing Fraud and Mismanagement in Government identifies common themes in public fraud and corruption, describes the forces that drive them, and provides an objective standard of good practices with no political bent. From Bridgegate to Iran-Contra, this book walks through the massive scandals that resulted from public mismanagement and fraud to illustrate how deeply-entrenched, entity-specific norms can differ from actual best practices. The discussion includes the theoretical underpinnings of public fraud, and how intense corporate culture and limited exposure to outside practice standards can lead to routine deviation from normal behavior and moral standards. You'll find a compendium of practices that illustrate actual norms, allowing you to compare your own agency's culture and operations to standard practice, and contrast the motivations for fraud in the public and private sectors. Public agencies and governmental entities are generally driven by a pubic benefit or goal, but are widely varied in the ability and desire to deliver value while retaining best practices. This book explicitly explores the common patterns of agency practices and cultural norms, and describes how they can easily cross over into illegal acts. Understand why fraud exists in the public sector Discover how your agency's mindset diverges from the norm Review cases where agency practices diverged from best financial practices Learn good practices in an objective, nonpolitical context The government/public sector provides some of the most basic services that are critical to a functioning society. Lacking a profit motive, these agencies nonetheless show a pattern of fraud and borderline behavior that could be mitigated with the adoption of standards and best practices. Preventing Fraud and Mismanagement in Government shares a canon of knowledge related to public operations and fraud, providing deep insight into the causes, solutions, and prevention.