EVENTS from Other Institutions
WORKSHOP: “Modernization, Westernization, and Democratization of Public Financial Management” (and Special Issue of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies)
June 6, 2018 - June 8, 2018
Venue: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine)
Organizer(s): Professor Anatoli Bourmistrov and Professor Giuseppe Grossi (Nord University Business School, Bodø, Norway) and Professor Igor Lyutyy (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine)
Language: English
Contact: Olga Iermolenko, PhD candidate, Nord University Business School
E-mail: [email protected]
Tlf: + 47 942 50 518
The large donor bodies, such as the IMF, and the World Bank, international organizations like the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and big accounting firms have encouraged the “modernization” of public financial management as a method of reducing corruption and fraud, and increase efficient, accountable and responsible delivery of public services.
The reforms in public financial management were part of wider improvement in performance and fiscal management flowing from the change from the old paradigm of public administration (based on the Weberian bureaucracy) to New Public Management (based on the neo-liberalism agenda) introduced during the 1990s in the western democracies and market economies. New Public Financial Management (NPFM) spread to many western countries for a number of reasons. NPFM has seen the importing of private sector management processes and techniques to the public sector, and this has encompassed performance measures and other calculative practices (Ellwood and Newberry, 2007).
As part of larger democratic reforms, several CEE countries also introduced NPFM, including accrual accounting, financial and consolidated reporting, performance and participatory budgeting, and independent audits. The implementation of NPFM in public sector spheres has stirred wide debate, however, raising serious questions about its value (e.g. Olson et al., 2001) especially in emerging economies such as CEE countries.
We believe that this research setting offers a great opportunity to investigate how modernization, westernization and democratization change and impact public financial management practices in public sector organizations in CEE countries. Moreover, we are interested in understanding how these changes affect the use of accounting and performance information by political and managerial actors and have implications for their work.
Given this, the Special Issue of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies aims to provide a timely and comprehensive overview of accounting, budgeting and management control issues and practices in the public sector in CEE countries. It is envisaged that contributions within this issue will not only provide evidence to evaluate and guide the introduction of new practices and processes within the public sector in CEE countries, but also to inform policy making within government.
We invite empirical and theoretical contributions from a wide variety of research perspectives and approaches. We particularly encourage comparative studies highlighting causes and consequences of similarities and differences across CEE countries, policy areas and different providers of public services. We invite papers that investigate the reasons, processes and effects of changes in accounting, budgeting and management control practices, enforcement difficulties and institutional reforms in different levels of governments (state, regional and local governments, etc.), and policy areas (as education, health care, etc.) in CEE countries.
The topics of the special issue and related workshop could include, but are not limited to:
• The role of western accounting practices and neo-liberal ideologies in the modernization of public financial management.
• The adoption and translation of private sector accounting practices in the public sector, and the (critical effects) effects of such adoption.
• The internal and external drivers and barriers to modernization of public financial management.
• The role of large donor bodies, international organizations and big accounting firms in the modernization of public financial management.
• The role and identities of change actors (i.e. controllers, auditors, consultants, academics, etc.) in the modernization of public financial management.
• The use of accounting and performance information by political and managerial actors.
• The hybrid arrangements (i.e. public-private partnership, co-production, etc.) in the delivery of public services and new forms of accounting technologies.
• The effects of accounting changes on democratic governance.
• The diffusion and use of new forms of “dialogic” accounting and performance management in ensuring democratic accountability, transparency and citizen participation.
This Special Issue of “Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies”, edited by Anatoli Bourmistrov, Giuseppe Grossi and Toomas Haldma, is associated to the Workshop “Modernization, Westernization, and Democratization of Public Financial Management in Central and Eastern European Countries” organized in Kyiv in 07-08 June, 2018.
Key note speakers at the Workshop: Prof. Stephen Zeff (Rice University, USA); Prof. Massimo Sargiacomo (University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy); Prof. Shahzad Uddin (Essex Business School, UK); Dmitri Gourfinkel, Senior Financial Management Specialist (World Bank); Einar Gørrissen, Director General (INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI)).
Important dates: Full papers for the workshop should be submitted by 31 March 2018 to Olga Iermolenko [email protected]. Acceptance will be notified by 15 April 2018. Feedback to the papers considered for the special issue will be provided in conjunction with the Workshop organized in Kiev during 7 - 8 June 2018. Upon incorporation of the feedback received during the Workshop, a selection of papers after a double-blind review process will be published in a Special Issue of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies in 2020.
The deadline for the submission to the Special issue of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies is 31 October 2018. Please be aware that presentation at the Workshop does not guarantee acceptance of the paper for publication in the Special Issue. Also, participating in the Workshop is not a precondition for submitting a manuscript to the Special Issue.
Prior to the main workshop, on 06 June 2018, a doctoral seminar will be organized. All three days will take place at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine).