Issue 2021 no5 contents:

The aim of this study is to examine the socio-economic, institutional, and political factors affecting external audit, with the use of an international comparison. In addition, the effect of external audit on fiscal transparency was analyzed. Although many empirical studies in the literature handle the factors affecting fiscal transparency, there are only a few empirical studies that focus on the factors affecting external audit and the impact of external audits on fiscal transparency. However, there is not one study dealing with the factors affecting external audit through making use of international comparisons. In this study we attempt to discover the factors affecting external audit and examine, using an international comparison, the impact of external audits on fiscal transparency. The Open Budget Survey published by the International Budget Partnership in 2017 was used to measure external audits. In the study, consisting of 115 countries, the effect of democratization level, government debt level, government balance, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, legislative budget oversight, the SAI's audit diversity and the effect of a judicial model of the SAI on external audit were investigated. The effect of external audit on fiscal transparency is tested for 115 countries using the Two-Stage Least Squares Method (2SLS). According to the analysis, it is determined that the level of democratization, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, budget oversight of the legislature, audit diversity of supreme audit institution and judicial model of supreme audit institution have significant and positive effects on external audit. It is also determined that external audit has a significant and positive effect on fiscal transparency.

The issue of financial autonomy has always generated a lot of interest amongst stakeholders and it continues to do so. However, opinions on the association between financial autonomy and rural development are diverse. Hence, this study is fixated on investigating the perspectives of stakeholders regarding the nexus between Financial Autonomy and Rural Development inselected local governments in Ogun State. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design method. Data were obtained through the administration of 400 copies of a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire in three-selected local councils in Ogun State, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics as well as the Kruskal-Wallis H test were the analytical techniques adopted. The study reveals a consensus in the different occupation/workgroups, i.e. that financial autonomy accelerates rural development in Ogun State Local Governments. The result suggests that local councils will be better positioned to contribute to the national economy if their resources are managed with little or no interference from the state government. The paper recommends the enactment of legislation that will give autonomy to local governments to generate and manage their financial resources without undue meddling by other tiers of government, and hence, engender better service delivery and rural development.

The world is coming up with new solutions to old problemsin orderto improve efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) isarelatively new form of participatory governance. This approach is linked with New Public Management (NPM) and, since its inception, the private sector has taken over the entire world despite incongruence and incompatibility in indigenous values and cultures. PPPis also claimed to be the best solution in terms of service delivery; however, its effectiveness is yet to be achieved. The purpose of this study is to find the effectiveness ofthePPP mode of governance. This study is qualitative in nature and has taken one entity based on PPP as a case,i.e. Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC),in orderto study the impact of this solution to all,theills of public service delivery. Fourteen officialswere interviewed in this studyof LWMC (a quasi-governmental institution) and its private partners. Findings suggest that this PPP mode has major ethical risks in the form of lack of transparency in awarding contracts, equity-efficiency trade-off, overall conflict of philosophy of public and private sector, low professionalism, value for money (compromise on cost and quality), and weak accountability mechanisms.

Currently, public governance theory and "good governance" have a profound and positive influence on the government reform process in many countries around the world today. In essence, good governance is the set of principles and criteria on social management to maximize public interests as well as promote and ensure  the harmonious and sustainable development of a country. It can be said that good governance is both the ideal state and the goal that government reform in countries is aiming for, and the guiding principles for the design and operation of the state apparatus, government or system. In recent years, reform of government as well as reform of local government, according to good governance theory in Vietnam, has achieved many outstanding results. This is evident in the improvement in the indicators of provincial governance and public administration (Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (hereinafter referred to as PAPI)) in Vietnam over the years. Based on the survey results of PAPI in recent years, the article analyzes the good governance level of the local government of Vietnam, offers comments and assessments and proposes solutions on how to increase and strengthen the reform of local government in Vietnam according to good governance theory.

This article focuses on two pension reforms in Egypt in order to understand the dynamics of social policy reform under authoritarian rule. One was supported by the World Bank and promulgated in 2010. It included drastic changes, such as the introduction of a defined benefit scheme, and ultimately failed. Another was successfully implemented in 2019. Compared to the 2010 reform, the 2019 reform involved only parametric change (such as increasing the retirement age and amalgamating social insurance funds), in order to mitigate the criticisms that had been made of the previous pension reform and to facilitate gradual, steady enhancement of the programme’s sustainability. The findings suggest that perceptions of authoritarian leaders as having wide-ranging discretion in decision-making concerning public policy and being able to more decisively implement harsh social reform compared with democratic political leaders need to be reconsidered.

This article is based on mixed-method research conducted into the Georgian public administration system. The author of the article studied Georgian public administration from the perspective of sociocultural theories. The study proposed and confirmed the hypothesis that the persisting issues in Georgian public administration have deep cultural implications which originated from unchangeable centuries-old traditions of local society. With that, the study disproves the common opinion that corruption arose in local managerial traditions primarily during the soviet period. Besides, the results of the study revealed that a new generation of Georgian public servants in some matters demonstrate more traditionalism than their senior colleagues. At the same time, data analysis exposed a subgroup of Georgian bureaucrats which might be considered as potential modernizers among homogeneous groups of cultural traditionalists. Overall, the author makes the conclusion that models of behaviour which are assessed in Western societies as corrupt, are legalized and approved in Georgian society, as well as in local public office.

The problem of low usage of e-government solutions is common in many emerging countries. Is Russia experiencing the same issue? Are there sufficient conditions to grow the usage of e-government solutions (internet penetration rate, rights for the citizens to approach the government remotely, trust in government, computer skills and usage perception, etc.)? Do the use rates for public e-services portals and e-participation platforms equal one another? Based on scholarly articles, analytical reports, laws, regulations, and the results of citizens’ surveys, the research considers some factors that influence e-government implementation in Russia. The findings highlighted that the penetration of the Internet in Russia is high and that citizens have the right to approach the government remotely and trust the government. The survey demonstrated that the users believe they have enough knowledge and skills for using public e-services portals and e-participation platforms. At the same time, within the same institutional framework, the level of use of public e-services was still low in 2018 (29% of the respondents), and it was even lower for e-participation platforms (17% of the respondents). This observation suggests that the nature of e-government solutions (whether it is a public e-service portal or e-participation platform) should be considered when governments are developing roll-out programs.

Development institutions are the most important tool for stimulating innovation processes and infrastructure development. These organizations finance long-term investment projects that contribute to the socio-economic development of the industry, region or country. Such specificity of activity leads to significant difficulties in the assessment of their efficiency. At the same time, the development of a system for assessment of the development institutions’ efficiency, improving the efficiency of their work and ensuring positive economic growth rates in regions and states, are impossible without studying the approaches to the assessment of their efficiency.

A growing interest in the activities of multilateral development institutions is taking place in today’s literature on public administration. However, there are currently no review articles that would consider the scope of work devoted to the assessment of the development institutions’ efficiency. The review examines modern research publications that assess the results of individual development institutions and their contribution to socio-economic development and some issues of economic efficiency. The article analyzes various approaches and methods for assessment of the development institutions’ efficiency. The study will allow us to assess the potential for use of modern approaches and identify areas for further application of the used methods.

The materials of the review can be used as a general theoretical part for teaching the disciplines of "public administration" related to the assessment of the public administration efficiency.