IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v50y2018i2p149-160.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The governance of public bodies in times of austerity

Author

Listed:
  • Heald, David
  • Steel, David

Abstract

Private sector governance arrangements have been imported into UK public bodies under the influence of New Public Management reforms. This paper draws on a cohort study of 14 public bodies to assess the appropriateness of this practice and the impact of fiscal austerity during the study period of 2010–16. Based on multiple sources, including interviews with Chairs and Chief Executives, it shows that, though similar to private corporate Boards in appearance, public Boards are often excluded from the strategy role. They are also vulnerable to the elastic definition of policy over which Ministers assert dominance, thereby blurring accountability. It demonstrates the tension between vertical accountability to government principals and horizontal accountability to stakeholders. During the study window, public bodies were abolished, broken up, merged, reconfigured or taken back into core government, as the UK Government imposed austerity measures to reduce the size of the fiscal deficit and to diminish government roles in delivery, financing and regulation of public services. Surviving public bodies in the study suffered deep budget cuts and less autonomy from central control. These findings are interpreted as evidence of the re-territorialisation of the UK public sector, with accruals accounting and accounting consolidation practices playing a facilitating role.

Suggested Citation

  • Heald, David & Steel, David, 2018. "The governance of public bodies in times of austerity," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 149-160.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:50:y:2018:i:2:p:149-160
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2017.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838917300732
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2017.11.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Heald & David Steel, 2015. "Making the governance of public bodies work: chair-chief executive relationships in practice," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 257-264, July.
    2. Kurunmaki, Liisa & Mennicken, Andrea & Miller, Peter, 2016. "Quantifying, economising, and marketising: democratising the social sphere?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67549, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Matthew Flinders & Chris Skelcher, 2012. "Shrinking the quango state: five challenges in reforming quangos," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 327-334, September.
    4. David Heald & Ron Hodges, 2015. "Will “austerity” be a critical juncture in European public sector financial reporting?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(6), pages 993-1015, August.
    5. Enrico Bracci & Christopher Humphrey & Jodie Moll & Ileana Steccolini, 2015. "Public sector accounting, accountability and austerity: more than balancing the books?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(6), pages 878-908, August.
    6. Christopher Hood, 2007. "What happens when transparency meets blame-avoidance?," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 191-210, June.
    7. Irvine Lapsley, 2009. "New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?1," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(1), pages 1-21, March.
    8. David Heald & George Georgiou, 2000. "Consolidation principles and practices for the UK government sector," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 153-167.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hyndman, Noel & McKillop, Donal, 2018. "Public services and charities: Accounting, accountability and governance at a time of change," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 143-148.
    2. John R Bryson & Chloe Billing & Mark Tewdwr-Jones, 2023. "Urban infrastructure patching: Citizen-led solutions to infrastructure ruptures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(10), pages 1932-1948, August.
    3. Matteo Rossi & Giuseppe Festa & Ardi Gunardi, 2019. "The Evolution of Public-Private Partnerships in a Comparison between Europe and Italy: Some Perspectives for the Energy Sector," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 403-413.
    4. Silvia Fresneda & Nuria Reguera & Fernando Casas, 2021. "De-agentification Process in Spanish Regional Governments," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 39-64, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cooper, Christine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2021. "Hillsborough: The fight for accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Davide Eltrudis, 2022. "On the Financial Autonomy of European Local Governments: The Case of Municipal Bonds in Italy," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 226-242.
    3. Hyndman, Noel & McKillop, Donal, 2018. "Public services and charities: Accounting, accountability and governance at a time of change," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 143-148.
    4. Pazzi, Silvia & Svetlova, Ekaterina, 2023. "NGOs, public accountability, and critical accounting education: Making data speak," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. María Deseada López Subires & Laura Alcaide Muñoz & Andrés Navarro Galera & Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar, 2019. "The Influence of Socio-Demographic Factors on Financial Sustainability of Public Services: A Comparative Analysis in Regional Governments and Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    6. Elaine Stewart & Ciaran Connolly, 2021. "Recent UK Central Government Accounting Reforms: Claimed Benefits and Experienced Outcomes," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(3), pages 557-592, September.
    7. Younes Belfellah & David Carassus, 2016. "L'Accountability dans l'entreprise publique : Revue de littérature et proposition d'un cadre d'analyse," Post-Print hal-01902221, HAL.
    8. Pianezzi, Daniela & Ashraf, Muhammad Junaid, 2022. "Accounting for ignorance: An investigation into corruption, immigration and the state," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Imeda Tsindeliani & Sebastian Kot & Evgeniya Vasilyeva & Levon Narinyan, 2019. "Tax System of the Russian Federation: Current State and Steps towards Financial Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-18, December.
    10. José Ramón Sánchez-Serrano & David Alaminos & Francisco García-Lagos & Angela M. Callejón-Gil, 2020. "Predicting Audit Opinion in Consolidated Financial Statements with Artificial Neural Networks," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-14, August.
    11. Tóth, Balázs, 2021. "Milyen kapcsolatban állnak a közszféra reformjai a gazdaságpolitikai paradigmákkal? [How reforms of the public sector relate to the paradigms of economic policy]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 205-222.
    12. Palermo, Tommaso, 2014. "Accountability and expertise in public sector risk management: a case study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59948, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Les Worrall & Kim Mather & Roger Seifert, 2010. "Solving the Labour Problem Among Professional Workers in the UK Public Sector: Organisation Change and Performance Management," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 117-137, June.
    14. Brendan Whitty & Jessica Sklair & Paul Robert Gilbert & Emma Mawdsley & Jo‐Anna Russon & Olivia Taylor, 2023. "Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For‐profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 892-917, July.
    15. Liliana Doganova & Martin Giraudeau & Hans Kjellberg & Claes-Fredrik Helgesson & Francis Lee & Alexandre Mallard & Andrea Mennicken & Fabian Muniesa & Ebba Sjögren & Teun Zuiderent-Jerak, 2018. "Five years! Have we not had enough of valuation studies by now?," Post-Print halshs-01935355, HAL.
    16. Kang, Minah & Reich, Michael R., 2014. "Between credit claiming and blame avoidance: The changing politics of priority-setting for Korea's National Health Insurance System," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 9-17.
    17. B. Buylen & J. Christiaens, 2013. "Politics by numbers? An exploration of councillors apparent use of financial information during the budget discussion in Flemish municipal councils," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 13/841, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    18. Hamza El Kezazy & Yassine Hilmi, 2023. "Improving Good Governance Through Management Control in Local Authorities," Post-Print hal-04422229, HAL.
    19. Guilherme Belloque & Martina K Linnenluecke & Mauricio Marrone & Abhay K Singh & Rui Xue, 2021. "55 years of Abacus: Evolution of Research Streams and Future Research Directions," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(3), pages 593-618, September.
    20. Martin Bortz, 2023. "Advice that resonates: explaining the variability in consultants’ policy influence," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 211-232, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:50:y:2018:i:2:p:149-160. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.