Issue 2022 no5 contents:

Public participation is a way for stakeholders of public institutions to participate in the public decision-making process, planning, organizing, and financing activities to achieve common public goals. The research underlying this paper examines the ability of EU states to support e-participation in various ways and activities. The aim of the research is to identify the particularities of EU countries regarding e-participation and to analyze comparatively the changes that took place in the administrations of European states in the period 2010-2018. For this, EViews was applied with the ARDL model (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) to analyze both the variables and the dynamics of the relations between them in the considered period. The data on which the research was conducted were selected from the Eurostat portal, the World Bank, and the United Nations E-Government Database. The results show that during the period analyzed, in most European countries platforms and programs dedicated to cooperation and consultation between the administration, citizens, and economic agents were developed. These changes have led to a reduction in the costs of operating the administrative apparatus and a considerable decrease in administrative bureaucracy. The originality of the research lies in using the ARDL analysis model on e-participation data series in most European countries when ICT (information and communication technology) had a major impact on accelerating the cooperation of administrations with their stakeholders. Good e-participation practices identified in European countries show that efforts to integrate information and communication technologies into state administrations and their relations with citizens are needed and generate major economic and social benefits. States can take models from each other and adapt good practices to their specific realities. Research has highlighted the real need to accelerate this process in Europe, for effective communication between state administrations and between them and their stakeholders.

In discussions of Open Government Data (hereafter referred to as open data or OGD) in the academic literature, the question of what is meant by the word "open"? has to date received only limited attention. The use of Open Government Data (OGD) has spread globally as governments make more of their data available via electronically accessible formats for individuals to use and share. OGD is seen as something that has the potential to play an important role in achieving transparency, and accountability, enabling new forms of civic participation, and stimulates economic growth and development. However, there is a need to examine OGD datasets to determine whether they are truly open. The purpose of this paper is to investigate OGD openness based on a number of existing or proposed open data definitions and principles. The principles proposed by the work of the Open Government Working Group will be analyzed. The methodology that has been used to collect the data includes OGD website content analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews using purposeful and snowball sampling techniques. The results in this paper are just part of the overall study. This research has not been funded. The research limitation is it has been done only in the Irish context. It is an original study with primary data. The conclusion of this research mainly demonstrates that OGD in the Irish context is progressing but requires further work to be open based on the principles proposed by the Open Government Working Group works.

The study aims to examine the correlations among leadership styles, employee job satisfaction, positive moods, and organizational commitment in the public sector in Vietnam. A quantitative approach was implemented using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The questionnaire was distributed to 457 respondents working in public agencies in seven southern provinces of Vietnam. The findings concluded that three leadership styles (task-oriented, relation-oriented, change-oriented) directly predicted positive moods, but only task-oriented and change-oriented leadership directly affected employee job satisfaction. Further associations were also confirmed, including the positive effects of positive mood and job satisfaction on organizational commitment. Consequently, the indirect influences between the independent variables (leadership styles) were also indicated. Perceiving the significance of organizational commitment as well as job satisfaction and positive moods from the empirical results, public leaders are able to establish their own appropriate strategies and policies to improve organizational performance in the public sector. Moreover, this article would provide a basis for further analyses in public administration, as this paper is one of the very first leading academic studies in Vietnam public sector.

The increasing attention to counter-terrorism practices through counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation policies has not been matched by in-depth and comprehensive studies on terrorism and radicalisation.As a result, there is a misconception of both, leading to discriminatory counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation policies, which allow certain groups and the state to commit violence and take freedom from groups stigmatised as radical.This study seeks to examine terrorism and radicalism by exploring the interpretation of the government as an institution, which has the authority to interpret terrorism and radicalism,resulting in de-radicalization and counter-terrorism policies. A dataset consisted of news items about government activities on terrorism and radicalisation from three ministries/non-ministerial institutions wasused for corpus linguistics (CL) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) assisted by AntConc application. We found that the three agencies developed interpretations of radicalisitonas part of their main duties and functions. Radicalisation has become a very flexible concept, adapting to bureaucratic spaces, not to be solved but to obtain budget spaces. Finally, the government responded to the entry of radicalism as a public issue by fragmenting the whole concept of radicalisation and splitting it into various agencies, where it is suitable to be resolved,rather than unifying it comprehensively inthe National Counter-Terrorism Agency's mission.

This study investigates the roles and contributions of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in anti-corruption in Yemen, focusing on providing new empirical insights into their practical challenges.  The study relies on data collected by the Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA), reports, and questionnaires. In total, 100 self-administrated questionnaires were distributed and 83 were collected  and analysed at a rate of 83 %.. The results show that SAIs contribute significantly to detecting corruption, but they do not prevent corruption due to weak political stability and lack of application of laws. Moreover, SAIs face many obstacles, such as favoritism, weak internal audit systems, political instability, lack of independence and transparency in the financing process. In addition, the funds allocated to the apparatuses are not enough, which can hinder all the supplies, including modern tools of internal control. This study provides recommendations to improve the performance of SAIs, which, in turn, will reduce opportunities for corruption in the public sector. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that evaluates the role of SAIs in combating corruption by using reports from the COCA as the institution responsible for detecting corruption and corroborating information received from respondents, as well as transparency of international reports.

This study investigates the role of local government internal audit function maturity and expertise in supervising local government public service quality. We use secondary data from all local governments in Indonesia for the 2016-2019 fiscal year that generates panel data with 1934 observations, analyzed with panel data regression. Local governments in Indonesia have a good average quality of public services. In most tests, we evidence the positive effect of local government internal audit function maturity and expertise on public service quality. Internal audit function maturity is the strongest contributor, while expertise supports the audit process to achieve higher public service quality. Our study provides implications for local government supervision that should be maximized through internal audit function to achieve good quality public services, by developing proper internal auditor programs of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP). The local government should also have a proper budget allocation for public service. The adoption of information technology should also be optimized in public service implementation and supervision. Finally, our study brings significant novelty to public service and internal audit literature in Indonesia by providing one of the first comprehensive studies covering all Indonesian local governments.

The use of digital technologies in public administration has become a major trend in both developed and developing countries. Not surprisingly, the research interest to evaluating digital government performance has also increased. Since international indices and national statistics is more focused on evaluating the supply side of government digitalisation, more and more researchers are using survey methods to assess the progress determinants and barriers to digital government success from the demand side. So far, the review of such empirical studies has been quite limited. This paper aims to fill this gap and provides a comprehensive international literature review of using surveys for evaluating digital government performance published in 2011-2021. For the purpose of the study, an analytical framework including four levels of digital government performance (inputs and outputs characterising the government digitalisation process and outcomes and impacts representing public values) as well as cost and risk constructs were proposed and used.

The analysis of 216 empirical papers examining digital government performance in over 50 countries from 5 continents demonstrates that survey-based methods are widely used in both developed and developing economies, with varying levels of digital maturity. Several cross-country studies have been identified but most of the papers address digitalisation of public authorities at the national or local level. The core focus of the research is related to the adoption of digital public services and the extent of digital participation among citizens (and, to a much lesser extent, by businesses), while outcomes and societal impacts receive less attention regardless the level of e-government development of the relevant country. Noteworthy, there is growing interest in the issue of digital government risks. It is argued that more efforts should be made to evaluate the outcomes and impacts (public value) of digital government. Prospective research areas also relate to using survey methods to evaluate the performance of digital government in regulatory and enforcement areas, exploring variation of trust in government and trust in technology, measuring perceptions of government digitalisation risks, researching the reasons for avoiding digital interactions with the government on the part of citizens and businesses, and several others.