Practising bureaucrats, diplomats and political and academic audiences should find this a useful resource in seeking to benchmark best practice in public sector reform across Commonwealth member countries.

Fraud, corruption and bribery in and around public services have become an increasing concern in recent years. The reported level of fraud and corruption affecting the public sector has remained unacceptably high despite numerous national and international initiatives intended to tackle these crimes and their consequences. Fraud and Corruption in Public Services is a definitive, practical guide to the diverse risks that arise in central and local government. There is guidance on civil and criminal law around fraud, bribery and corruption as well as the national and international governmental measures and initiatives for countering this form of criminality. Most importantly of all, the book offers advice, practical examples and strategies for preventing and combating fraud, bribery and corruption. The text is readable, well-informed and intensely practical; illustrated throughout with real-life examples from the author's 40 year career.

This review represents a new policy approach for public sector reviews, linking the traditional thematic public employment and strategic human resource management (HRM) framework to public sector innovation and service delivery challenges in the Dominican Republic.

The deficiencies in the capability of the state to design and implement effective policies are arguably the biggest development challenge facing developing countries like India. This book seeks to assess state capability in India, identify weaknesses in policy design and programme implementation, and their causes, and propose some measures to remedy them. Importantly, it does so while recognizing political economy constraints and focusing predominantly on the administrative contributors. To this extent, the book's suggestions are practical enough for adoption by stakeholders at different levels. It describes the institutional design, constitutional provisions, the organizational structure, and the personnel of the Indian state. It covers a wide spectrum of aspects impacting state capability, ranging from ideological narratives and systemic constraints to procedural and personnel management issues to the behaviours and attitudes of individual bureaucrats. It offers a new analytical framework to think about effectiveness of state on the policy-making process. It also offers a nuanced perspective and suggestions on many of the popular themes in public administration - size of the state, generalist and specialist debates, lateral entry, digital monitoring systems in governance, outsourcing and private participation, use of consultants, risk aversion in bureaucracies, performance-based incentives, programme evaluations, and so on. Finally, being participants and observers in the bureaucratic system, the authors describe reality without always seeking to locate it in the framework of existing academic literature, thereby offering fresh insights and enriching the discourse on state capability.

This review of human resource management (HRM) in the federal government of Brazil provides a detailed diagnosis of the management of government employees, and solutions for improving it.

The work of a manager in a service organisation is not the same as the work of a manager in an organisation that manufactures goods. Managing Public Services, Implementing Changes – A Thoughtful Approach 2e, is for students and managers who intend to work in a service organisation whether it is owned publicly of privately. This book concentrates on how managers can change things for the better and explains ‘why’ as well as ‘how’. The second edition has been fully updated to address challenges facing public services with new material on managing cuts, managing risk, managing innovation, producing funding applications, Lean Management and process review. A new chapter on managing social enterprise and generating social capital has also been added. This text is both solidly practical and theoretically challenging and is supported by strong pedagogical features including: case studies and illustrative vignettes from public service managers working in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US; exercises and review questions. Students will develop learning skills that enable them to transfer their learning from one situation to another and thinking skills that enable them adapt the way that they apply their learning as circumstances change. This comprehensive text has been specifically designed and developed to meet the needs of students studying public services management at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It allows the reader to develop transferable skills in thinking and learning as they work through the book and gives greater awareness of the benefits of continuous learning for staff and managers.

Jane Kelsey’s exploration of the effects of globalisation on the New Zealand economy was eye-opening when published in 1999. She offered a trenchantly expressed response to the neoliberal slogan of the time, ‘There is no alternative.’ Kelsey’s analysis remains a critical yardstick for current policies and an alternative perspective on the development of global relationships. The recent global financial meltdown and subsequent recession give new relevance to her questions about globalisation’s consequences for sovereignty and democracy. Kelsey continues to offer a bold voice of challenge and critique, pointing the way for open-eyed engagement with the economic realities of the future.