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Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’

Ferry, L.; Eckersley, P.

Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’ Thumbnail


Authors

P. Eckersley



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.

Citation

Ferry, L., & Eckersley, P. (2015). Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’. Public Money & Management, 35(3), 203-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Mar 17, 2015
Publication Date May 1, 2015
Deposit Date Oct 23, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Public Money and Management
Print ISSN 0954-0962
Electronic ISSN 1467-9302
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 35
Issue 3
Pages 203-210
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496
Keywords Accountability, Audit, Budgeting, Central government, Local government, Public sector.
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1428185

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