Reform of government financial management systems in the past decade has seen developments in accrual accounting and in results-based budgeting and reporting. Australia has worked with an accrual-based framework for outcomes and outputs budgeting and reporting since fiscal year 1999/2000. The...

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to study the transformation of reform discourse after a major political shift and to discuss some of the factors that may explain change and continuity in reforms. Design/methodology/approach – The study is an embedded case study of four financial...

Purpose: With performance as a core theme of public sector reforms, this article explores performance management systems in inter-organizational settings while testing the effect of performance measurement on its use for accountability and control. Using economic neo-institutional perspective...

This article supports the Flemish Government’s efforts to improve the efficiency in the public sector, but points out that efficiency has to be considered in the broader context of a well-performing and well-functioning public sector. After describing the main motives for efficiency...

Charters are official commitments to quality and reform. Belgium introduced its Charter of the User of Public Services in 1993. The federal administration's Copernicus reform began in 1999 and had a strong external outlook. It therefore may be considered as a second User Charter. In this article...

Local government plays a central but altering role in local governance. Together with the shift from a night-watchman state to a welfare state , the models of governance provision changed. Government itself became larger and more scattered throughout the local community. Moreover, government was...