Funded by taxation, public spending cannot be separated from politics and ensuring efficiency and effectiveness is always high on the political and policy agenda. Accounting, accountability, governance and auditing are essential ingredients in evaluating public sector performance. Australia and New Zealand are world leaders when it comes to public sector accounting—such as being the first to introduce transaction-neutral accounting standards. This edited collection considers current issues impacting the public sector by primarily drawing upon experiences of Australia and New Zealand. Then, by combining history (from the time of the Domesday book, early sovereignty and Shakespeare) with current practice (differential reporting, international financial reporting standards, government performance, voter turnout, joined-up government and auditing practices), we use these experiences to illuminate the global issues of public sector accounting, accountability and governance. Based on rigorous research by top public sector researchers, this edited collection offers a multitude of future research ideas to enable those interested in following this pathway—whether they are in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America, Africa or anywhere else in the world—an avenue to traverse.

The purpose of this paper is to deepen David McGee's analysis of Public Accounts Committees (PACs) and to define PAC success and identify those factors that impact on PAC performance.

This book examines executive power in the United Kingdom from a British and from a distinctively Scottish perspective. There are chapters on the four common law jurisdictions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States and on the four civil law jurisdictions of France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and on the EU.

This report is the result of the meetings of a study group organized by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association with some participation by the World Bank. The members of the study group are members of public accounts committees, or PACs, in Australia, Botswana, Canada, India, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and the UK. The aim of the group was to assess the operation of PACs and define their role in promoting good government, with consideration of issues that include accountability, PAC organization, problems peculiar to smaller legislatures, international cooperation, and information exchange. Not indexed. Distributed by Stylus. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR