Call for papers
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The European Group for Public Administration Permanent Study Group XII, Public Sector Financial Management in collaboration with the University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Faculty of Economic Science and Business Administration Department of Accounting and Auditing and Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences Public Administration and Management Department have the pleasure to invite you to submit a paper for the 2019 Spring Workshop organised by the EGPA Permanent Study Group XII 'Public Sector Financial Management', to be held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on 9-10 May 2019.
The Permanent Study Group XII within the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) is an intellectual platform for the specific theme 'Public Sector Financial Management'. The overall objective of the Study Group is to provide a forum for scholars and practitioners to present, discuss and debate their research, findings and ideas about innovative approaches and tools in Public Financial Management (PFM), as well as to highlight and compare experiences of mature systems or systems that are still under trial in European and non-European countries. The Study Group convenes twice a year in order to create a network of close collaboration among its participants. These assemblies present the opportunity for participants to highlight and compare experiences of innovations in PFM in order to define both theoretical structures and practical implementations dealing with financial sustainability and financial distress in public sector organizations.
The theme of the Cluj-Napoca workshop is:
The role of public sector accounting and reporting in restoring public confidence and legitimacy
Restoring public sector legitimacy by policy makers has been invoked as one of the main motivations for public sector reform in the 1980s and ‘90s. Low or declining public trust in government and a decline of the public sector’s legitimacy (either perceived or real) has become a central motivation for public sector reform efforts, notably NPM-style reforms. (Van de Walle, 2011) A central role in NPM reform is given to PFM that encompasses a comprehensive set of diverse activities regarding budget preparation and execution, control, accounting, reporting, monitoring and evaluation (Allen et al. 2004). These activities produce plenty of data that are (or not) reported and/or used by a relatively broad range of users with diverse needs. In consequence, there is a strong demand for research on determining users and their information needs, especially in the public sector context (Oulasvirta 2016, Cascino et al. 2014, Tagesson 2014, Young, 2006) with the specific aim of restoring public confidence and legitimacy, and even more in a context of financial constraints, being financial sustainability another important aim of governments. Accounting can contribute in restoring public confidence and legitimacy implementing new management tools and developing more adequate models (Jones 1992) to communicate with citizens, including a specific reporting format. Therefore, also the development of alternative reporting formats, such as Sustainability Reporting, Social Responsibility Reporting or Integrated Reporting in the public sector, is worth to be considered.
Another issue concerns the usefulness of information provided by PFM. A controversial debate is prevalent upon two types of accounting use, i.e. accountability and decision making (e.g. Jones 1991 & 1992, Pallot 1992) that currently gains momentum in the EPSAS development discussion. There is a growing literature discussing accounting objectives (e.g. Glöckner 2015, Nowak et al. 2014, Broadbent & Guthrie 2008,) which, however, has not concluded the debate.
We invite papers within the broad area of users, their needs and usefulness as well as use and usability of public sector financial management information, namely research works that fall within the fields of reporting, financial accounting, budgeting, auditing, management accounting and performance management and control. The research may be contemporary, historical or comparative. In particular, the workshop is interested in research which addresses the following themes:
• The role of new/alternative reporting formats (e.g. popular reporting, integrated reporting, sustainability reporting and performance reporting) in addressing a broader scope of users and responding to their needs.
• Perspectives on the use of performance information in the public sector (i.e. theories, practices and disciplines).
• The challenges in developing and implementing conceptual frameworks and accounting standards both at national and international level (i.e.: IPSAS; EPSAS; national regimes) that contribute to restoring public confidence and legitimacy
• Innovations in financial accounting and/or management accounting for the public sector, which improve financial sustainability and/or usability by internal and/or external users.
• Studies on user-centred design and user needs assessment within public financial management
• Transparency, financial sustainability and legitimacy of governments.
• Participation of citizens in public financial management and service delivery: implications in confidence and legitimacy of governments
• The role of auditing in restoring confidence and legitimacy.
The workshop also welcomes papers that fall within the general scope of public sector accounting and the comparability of governmental financial reporting in the EU and worldwide. The call for papers encompasses research works under both the financial and the management accounting paradigms, through all theoretical perspectives and research methods.
Papers will be accepted for presentation based upon acceptance of the abstract. All abstracts (or full papers) will undergo a double blind review process and accepted papers will be distributed among the workshop participants.
