Legal and regulatory barriers to effective public-private partnership governance in Kazakhstan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical assessment of legal and regulatory impediments to effective governance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in Kazakhstan. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative study develops propositions from the PPP literature and then tests them against findings from in-depth interviews. Interviewees have been selected by a purposeful sampling from PPP projects in Kazakhstan as well as from national and regional PPP centres. Findings – The identified barriers to effective PPP management include irregularities in the PPP legal framework, such as lack of legal definition of a PPP and controversy with the government guarantee’s legal status for its long-term payments to partnerships; bureaucratic tariff setting for partnership services; non-existent opportunity for private asset ownership; and excessive government regulation of PPP workers’ wage rates. Practical implications – The partners’ opposing perspectives on a number of PPP issues show that management needs to identify and carefully reconcile stakeholder values in a partnership in order to achieve more effective PPP governance. Practitioners, particularly those in the public agencies, have to be concerned with ways to reduce the government overregulation of the private operators, which is likely to result in greater PPP flexibility in management and, ultimately, higher efficiency in delivering the public services. Originality/value – By elucidating multiple examples of overregulation and PPPs’ inefficiency, the paper demonstrates that the government dominance in PPP management is conceptually inappropriate. Instead, the government should adopt the concept of co-production and manage its relations with the private sector partner in a collaborative fashion.

Childhood trauma: methods for the identification of physeal fractures in non-adult skeletal remains

Objectives Today, fractures at the growth plate (or physis) are common injuries in children, but provide challenges of identification in skeletonized remains. Clinical studies provide detailed information on the mechanisms, locations, age of occurrence, and complications associated with physeal fractures, enabling the development of new criteria for identifying this injury in non-adults. To test these criteria, skeletal remains from five rural and urban medieval cemeteries were examined. Methods The sample consisted of 961 skeletons (0-17 years) with open epiphyses. Macroscopic observation looked for any irregularities of the metaphysis or epiphysis which was consistent with the clinical appearance of physeal fractures or resulting complications. Radiographic examination was applied to identify fracture lines or early growth arrest. Results This study revealed 12 cases of physeal trauma (1.2%). Physeal fractures occurred predominantly at the distal end (75%), and while they were identified in all age categories, they were most frequent in those aged 12-17 years (0.2% TPR). The humerus was the most commonly affected location (3/12 or 25%). Conclusions This study highlights the potential for recognizing physeal fractures in children of all ages, enhancing our understanding of non-adult trauma, and enabling us to assign a more precise age of the injury to build up a picture of their activities in the past.

SEM analysis of enamel surface treated by Er : YAG laser: Influence of irradiation distance

Background: Depending on the distance of laser tip to dental surface a specific morphological pattern should be expected. However, there have been limited reports that correlate the Er:YAG irradiation distance with dental morphology. Purpose: To assess the influence of Er:YAG laser irradiation distance on enamel morphology, by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Methods: Sixty human third molars were employed to obtain discs (congruent to 1 mm thick) that were randomly assigned to six groups (n = 10). Five groups received Er:YAG laser irradiation (80 mJ/2 Hz) for 20 s, according to the irradiation distance: 11, 12, 14, 16, or 17 mm. and the control group was treated with 37% phosphoric acid for 15 s. The laser-irradiated discs were bisected. One hemi-disc was separated for superficial analysis without subsequent acid etching, and the other one, received the phosphoric acid for 15 s. Samples were prepared for SEM. Results: Laser irradiation at 11 and 12 min provided an evident ablation of enamel, with evident fissures and some fused areas. At 14, 16 and 17 mm the superficial topography was flatter than in the other distances. The subsequent acid etching on the lased-surface partially removed the disorganized tissue. Conclusions: Er:YAG laser in defocused mode promoted slight morphological alterations and seems more suitable for enamel conditioning than focused irradiation. The application of phosphoric acid on lased-enamel surface, regardless of the irradiation distance, decreased the superficial irregularities.

Fractal structures in stenoses and aneurysms in blood vessels

Recent advances in the field of chaotic advection provide the impetus to revisit the dynamics of particles transported by blood flow in the presence of vessel wall irregularities. The irregularity, being either a narrowing or expansion of the vessel, mimicking stenoses or aneurysms, generates abnormal flow patterns that lead to a peculiar filamentary distribution of advected particles, which, in the blood, would include platelets. Using a simple model, we show how the filamentary distribution depends on the size of the vessel wall irregularity, and how it varies under resting or exercise conditions. The particles transported by blood flow that spend a long time around a disturbance either stick to the vessel wall or reside on fractal filaments. We show that the faster flow associated with exercise creates widespread filaments where particles can get trapped for a longer time, thus allowing for the possible activation of such particles. We argue, based on previous results in the field of active processes in flows, that the non-trivial long-time distribution of transported particles has the potential to have major effects on biochemical processes occurring in blood flow, including the activation and deposition of platelets. One aspect of the generality of our approach is that it also applies to other relevant biological processes, an example being the coexistence of plankton species investigated previously.

Den nya kassaregisterlagen

The government appointed in 2004 a special investigator with the objective to investigate the possibility of introducing a new law concerning implementation of obligatory cash registers with certain certification. This resulted in SOU 2005:35 ”Krav på kassaregister - Effektivare utredning av skattebrott” (Proposition 2006/07: 105). Following advice received from the respondents, the government has drafted a bill submitted to parliament in March 2007. Government bill 2006/07: 105 proposals for new law on cash registers, and submitted to parliament 2007th Act (2007:592) on the cash register was adopted by parliament in March that year and came into force on 1 January 2010. Earlier great opportunities for tax cheating has been available by various methods so as to simply not punch in a sale at the checkout, use the training function type, use receipt copies, manipulate register functions on its program level, using alternative programming etc. These opportunities are eliminated in the certified cash registers. Respondent traders believed the most part has not changed the competition or that the change will be relatively small. They also thought it was too early to see any change at this time. A tendency among traders we have asked is that they feel negatively for the costs it imposes, with the new registry and that they are skeptical about the expected impact of the law, among others due to the scarce resources spent on follow-up. The Swedish tax agency is responsible for control and the new systems make it easier for Tax control, but actual physical on-scene control must be performed to detect irregularities.

Visualization of spirography-based objective measures in Parkinson's disease

Objective: To investigate whether advanced visualizations of spirography-based objective measures are useful in differentiating drug-related motor dysfunctions between Off and dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Background: During the course of a 3 year longitudinal clinical study, in total 65 patients (43 males and 22 females with mean age of 65) with advanced PD and 10 healthy elderly (HE) subjects (5 males and 5 females with mean age of 61) were assessed. Both patients and HE subjects performed repeated and time-stamped assessments of their objective health indicators using a test battery implemented on a telemetry touch screen handheld computer, in their home environment settings. Among other tasks, the subjects were asked to trace a pre-drawn Archimedes spiral using the dominant hand and repeat the test three times per test occasion. Methods: A web-based framework was developed to enable a visual exploration of relevant spirography-based kinematic features by clinicians so they can in turn evaluate the motor states of the patients i.e. Off and dyskinesia. The system uses different visualization techniques such as time series plots, animation, and interaction and organizes them into different views to aid clinicians in measuring spatial and time-dependent irregularities that could be associated with the motor states. Along with the animation view, the system displays two time series plots for representing drawing speed (blue line) and displacement from ideal trajectory (orange line). The views are coordinated and linked i.e. user interactions in one of the views will be reflected in other views. For instance, when the user points in one of the pixels in the spiral view, the circle size of the underlying pixel increases and a vertical line appears in the time series views to depict the corresponding position. In addition, in order to enable clinicians to observe erratic movements more clearly and thus improve the detection of irregularities, the system displays a color-map which gives an idea of the longevity of the spirography task. Figure 2 shows single randomly selected spirals drawn by a: A) patient who experienced dyskinesias, B) HE subject, and C) patient in Off state. Results: According to a domain expert (DN), the spirals drawn in the Off and dyskinesia motor states are characterized by different spatial and time features. For instance, the spiral shown in Fig. 2A was drawn by a patient who showed symptoms of dyskinesia; the drawing speed was relatively high (cf. blue-colored time series plot and the short timestamp scale in the x axis) and the spatial displacement was high (cf. orange-colored time series plot) associated with smooth deviations as a result of uncontrollable movements. The patient also exhibited low amount of hesitation which could be reflected both in the animation of the spiral as well as time series plots. In contrast, the patient who was in the Off state exhibited different kinematic features, as shown in Fig. 2C. In the case of spirals drawn by a HE subject, there was a great precision during the drawing process as well as unchanging levels of time-dependent features over the test trial, as seen in Fig. 2B. Conclusions: Visualizing spirography-based objective measures enables identification of trends and patterns of drug-related motor dysfunctions at the patient’s individual level. Dynamic access of visualized motor tests may be useful during the evaluation of drug-related complications such as under- and over-medications, providing decision support to clinicians during evaluation of treatment effects as well as improve the quality of life of patients and their caregivers. In future, we plan to evaluate the proposed approach by assessing within- and between-clinician variability in ratings in order to determine its actual usefulness and then use these ratings as target outcomes in supervised machine learning, similarly as it was previously done in the study performed by Memedi et al. (2013).

Controle da gestão pública e participação cidadã: a experiência da ouvidoria do Tribunal de Contas de Pernambuco

Dentre os diversos temas de interesse social, a pesquisa realizada enfocou as relações entre Estado e sociedade, destacando a função de controle sobre a improbidade administrativa como instrumento relevante para o aprimoramento da gestão pública e para a melhoria das condições de vida da população. A investigação destacou a atuação do Tribunal de Contas de Pernambuco, as formas de controle institucional e o modo como o cidadão exerce o controle social da Administração Pública. Os resultados dos estudos, baseados na revisão da literatura sobre o tema e na experiência do Tribunal, apontam caminhos para a participação social e indicam a necessidade de constante reflexão sobre a prática institucional. A pesquisa compreendeu a identificação dos canais de comunicação estabelecidos entre o TCE-PE e a sociedade, por meio dos programas da Escola de Contas Públicas Barreto Guimarães e particularmente da Ouvidoria. O trabalho ressaltou o encaminhamento dado pelo Tribunal às denúncias de irregularidades encaminhadas pelo cidadão à Ouvidora. A análise das denúncias e a repercussão da participação do cidadão foram observadas nos julgamentos dos processos oriundos de demandas da Ouvidoria. O estudo ofereceu uma visão geral da organização e do funcionamento do Tribunal de Contas de Pernambuco e sua relação com a sociedade, em busca de um controle mais efetivo da improbidade administrativa. Tendo em vista a novidade da investigação no âmbito dos Tribunais de Contas, a abordagem utilizada revestiu-se de caráter exploratório.

Reelection incentives and political corruption : evidence from Brazil’s municipal audit reports

This paper uses a unique dataset of political corruption, constructed from municipal audit reports obtained from Brazil’s randomized anti-corruption program, to test whether reelection incentives affect the level of rent extraction of incumbent politicians. In order to identify reelection incentives, we use the existence of a term limit in Brazil’s municipal elections. We find that in municipalities where mayors are in their second and final term, there is significantly more corruption compared to similar municipalities where mayors are in their first-term. In particular, in municipalities with second-term mayors there is, on average, R$188,431 more diversion of resources and the incidence of irregularities is 23% higher. We also find more pronounced effects where the costs of rent-extraction are lower (municipalities without media and judicial presence), and the density of pivotal voters is higher (more political competition). Finally, we show that first-term mayors, while less corrupt, have a larger incidence of poor administration suggesting that there may exist a trade-off between corruption and quality in public good provision.

Equipes de trabalho na administração municipal: a captação de recursos para o desenvolvimento no município de Natividade/RJ

This thesis aims to identify how teams of at job municipality Natividade influence in raising funds through projects. Was employed research descriptive, explanatory literature and content analysis focused on a qualitative approach, which led to the interpretation of elements detected in field research, aligning them with researched theoretical material . The survey results indicate that the municipal administrators in their departments work of non-integrated form, complicating and compromising the execution of agreements and contracts and causing delays in the progress of processes. It was found that it is necessary investment in technical training, preventive actions and daily monitoring, targeting the correct fulfillment of the requirements for capturing public resources. It is essential to adopt the merit of legitimacy organizational as a mechanism to be able to retain, develop, attract and motivate city officials to work in Project Teams. The main contributions of this study are to provoke reflections on the dynamics of raising public resources for development projects and programs. Was identified a lack of trained technicians and municipal managers to present suitable projects, to identify problems in the implementation of agreements and correct irregularities pointed out in the Ancillary Service Information for Voluntary Transfers - Cauc. It was found that managerial failure causes impacts both in teams of job, as in the progress of the municipality. Keywords: work teams, fundraising, projects.

Controles sobre o Judiciário geram governança e eficiência? Estudo sobre o CNJ e a Justiça Estadual

O objetivo desta tese é investigar a atuação do órgão de controle judicial no Poder Judiciário, focando na dimensão “Desempenho Administrativo Judicial”. Esta tese visa complementar o modelo de Taylor (2008) adicionando o CNJ como um elemento da melhoria do desempenho dos tribunais, por meio da implantação de ferramentas gerenciais e ocasionando impactos políticos e institucionais. O estudo se apoia no contexto político e organizacional do Judiciário para apresentar um complemento ao entendimento vigente sobre os mecanismos de mensuração de desempenho. Os impactos do CNJ foram analisados a partir de sete aspectos do processo de Reforma do Judiciário: 1. Padronização das estruturas; 2. Sistemas de gerenciamento centralizados; 3. Padronização de procedimentos internos; 4. Centralização orçamentária; 5. Financiamento de unidades judiciais; 6. Procedimentos disciplinar contra irregularidades e más condutas de magistrados; 7. Critérios meritocráticos e promoção de magistrados. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas estruturadas com ex-conselheiros e conselheiros atuais do CNJ e considerou os dez anos de existência do CNJ (2004-2013), fornecendo uma perspectiva longitudinal. A análise temática ou categorial foi escolhida como a principal da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Os dados foram segmentados por questões, por categorias prévias e por categorias estabelecidas posteriormente. Foi evidenciado que o CNJ apresenta um efeito direto de atuação no “Desempenho Administrativo Judicial”: i) usando ferramentas de gestão que permitem os tribunais aprimorar a organização interna e elevar o nível de maturidade de governança; ii) moralizando e fiscalizando os Tribunais por meio de inspeções frequentes realizadas pela Corregedoria Nacional de Justiça que objetiva a resolução das irregularidades e o afastamento dos magistrados com más condutas no exercício do cargo. As evidências identificaram também impactos indiretos: i) o CNJ como um coordenador de ações do Judiciário, articulando melhor as relações com os representantes do Executivo e do Legislativo na obtenção de mais recursos orçamentários e financeiros para os tribunais; ii) o CNJ aumenta a autonomia do Judiciário reconhecendo os esforços de gestão dos tribunais e compartilhando as melhores práticas com os outros tribunais, com impactos na melhoria de infraestrutura e no desempenho. O aumento de controle promovido pelo CNJ reforçou a governança e a eficiência dos tribunais, mas com perca de autonomia num primeiro momento. Por outro lado, num segundo momento, possibilitou uma mudança de perfil nas indicações de seus conselheiros numa tentativa de enfraquecer o controle e aumentar autonomia dos tribunais.

Ferramentas de controle interno da controladoria geral da União: instrumentos de fiscalização da gestão, controle social e combate a corrupção

A administração pública exerce o seu poder de fiscalização por intermédio dos controles externo e interno, nos níveis federal, estadual e municipal, atuando como representante do papel no lugar do cidadão na gestão dos bens públicos. A correta utilização dos recursos públicos tem sido motivo de preocupação da administração pública, não só quanto à existência de corrupção de agentes públicos e políticos, mas também pela má gestão, pela falta de eficácia, eficiência, efetividade e economicidade quando da execução de recursos por meio das políticas públicas. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar a questão da governança na administração pública, sua eficiência no sentido amplo, na vertente do controle interno e controle social como forma de combate à corrupção. Este estudo buscou analisar o controle social nas ações investigativas do governo federal brasileiro, realizadas pela Controladoria Geral da União (CGU), por intermédio das Demandas Externas que são instrumentos de controle interno desenvolvidos pela CGU, são ferramentas de auditoria utilizadas no controle que proporcionam a fiscalização imediata por representantes de entidades e cidadãos, gerando relatórios e pedidos de informações para que o gestor se manifeste sobre impropriedades e irregularidades na execução de políticas públicas. As demandas externas processadas pela Controladoria Geral da União e estão ligadas diretamente ao momento de fiscalização prévia e concomitante, também se relacionam com a questão do controle social enfatizando a participação popular, podendo ser iniciadas não somente a partir de denúncias formuladas pelos órgãos do poder público e imprensa, mas a partir do próprio cidadão que diretamente exerce seu poder de fiscalização, havendo o uso desse instrumento aumentado significativamente nos últimos anos, principalmente por meio da internet. A relevância do estudo é importante na verificação da inciativa dessas demandas, outrora sempre feita por parte de órgãos da estrutura burocrática do Estado, começa a fomentar o cidadão à participação, isso aumenta o controle social e o accountability vertical.

Fragilidades dos mecanismos de controle das organizações sociais de saúde no município do Rio de Janeiro

Nosso problema de pesquisa neste trabalho é a avaliação do funcionamento dos principais mecanismos de controle das organizações sociais de saúde, no caso específico do Município do Rio de Janeiro. As reiteradas denúncias de irregularidades e ilegalidades pelo Tribunal de Contas do Município do Rio de Janeiro e pelo Ministério Público do Estado do Rio de Janeiro levantaram dúvidas acerca da adequação dos processos de monitoramento, fiscalização e controle dessas entidades. Disto decorre nosso objetivo central de pesquisa, que é identificar as fragilidades do novo modelo de gestão por organizações sociais de saúde, no caso da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Para isso, foram analisados: o arcabouço jurídico-normativo do modelo local, a partir de análise comparativa da legislação municipal que regulamenta seu funcionamento (Lei 5.026/09) e sua contraparte federal (Lei 9.637/98); indicadores de saúde que mensurassem o desempenho das OSS; todas as inspeções realizadas pelo TCM-RJ até o fim de 2015; e o conjunto de recomendações enviado pelo MP-ERJ para a Prefeitura após deflagração da Operação Ilha Fiscal, que acarretou a desqualificação da OS BIOTECH e a prisão de seus dirigentes, acusados de desviar mais de R$48 milhões em recursos públicos. Ao final, constatouse que as fragilidades da legislação municipal e dos decretos executivos que regulamentam a atuação das OSS no MRJ não permitem o exercício efetivo do comando da parceria, em afronta, portanto, ao dispositivo constitucional que determina que a atuação de entidades privadas no âmbito do SUS pode se dar apenas de modo complementar. Ademais, verificou-se total inadequação da estrutura de controle pela Prefeitura, cuja principal consequência foi tornar o modelo de reforma gerencialista em um modelo que incentiva o comportamento patrimonialista no âmbito da saúde pública, uma vez que o controle de meios é absolutamente negligenciado.

The impact of corruption on the performance of state-owned companies: case of Petrobras Brasil

As empresas estatais são freqüentemente consideradas como componentes cruciais da economia de um país. Eles são responsáveis pela criação de vários postos de trabalho e proveem serviços essenciais que exigem um grande investimento de capital. Porém, em países com instituições fracas, onde a responsabilidade dos políticos é limitada e a gestão dos recursos financeiros das empresas estatais sofre pouco controle, os funcionários são muitas vezes tentados pela corrupção. Enormes quantidades de fundos públicos são facilmente desviados, e dinheiro que deveria ter sido investido nas despesas de capital, no pagamento de dívida da empresa ou no aumento do retorno para os acionistas, é usado para aumentar a riqueza privada de indivíduos ou para financiar ilegalmente partidos políticos. O desempenho da empresa sofre com essas alienações visto que parte dos lucros da empresa não são reinvestidos na empresa e dado que incentivos dos gestores estão desalinhados com os interesses dos acionistas. Petrobras, a maior empresa da América Latina em termos de ativos e receitas anuais, sofreu em 2014 e 2015 um escândalo de corrupção imenso, cujo impacto económico foi considerável, levando ao enfraquecimento da confiança de muitos investidores no Brasil após o evento. O escândalo expôs um extenso esquema de corrupção através do qual os contratantes foram conspirando para aumentar os preços de contratos de construção, com a aprovação da administração da Petrobras que pediu em troca ganhos pessoais ou fundos para o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). A exposição do escândalo na imprensa brasileira teve um grande impacto sobre a credibilidade da Petrobras: as contas da empresa estavam escondendo imensas irregularidades dado que a empresa tinha pago demais para os contratos de construção que não foram precificados no valor do mercado. Ao longo deste estudo, usamos o exemplo da Petrobras para ilustrar como a corrupção dentro empresas estatais prejudica o desempenho da empresa e como ela afeta as várias partes interessadas da empresa.

Applying DEMO to model and automate a process in a workflow system: a case study in a city hall

Organizations are Complex systems. A conceptual model of the enterprise is needed that is: coherent the distinguished aspect models constitute a logical and truly integral comprehensive all relevant issues are covered consistent the aspect models are free from contradictions or irregularities concise no superfluous matters are contained in it essential it shows only the essence of the enterprise, i.e., the model abstracts from all realization and implementation issues. The world is in great need for transparency about the operation of all the systems we daily work with, ranging from the domestic appliances to the big societal institutions. In this context the field of enterprise ontology has emerged with the aim to create models that help to understand the essence of the construction and operation of complete systems; more specifically, of enterprises. Enterprise ontology arises in the way to look through the distracting and confusing appearance of an enterprise right into its deep kernel. This, from the perspective of the system designer gives him the tools needed to design a successful system in a way that’s reflects the desires and needs of the workers of the enterprise. This project’s context is the use of DEMO (Design and Engineering Methodology for Organizations) for (re)designing or (re)engineering of an enterprise, namely a process of the construction department of a city hall, the lack of a well-founded theory about the construction and operation of this processes that was the motivation behind this work. The purpose of studying applying the DEMO theory and method was to optimize the process, automating it as much as possible, while reducing paper and time spent between tasks and provide a better service to the citizens.

Desenvolvimento de um sistema de planejamento, gestão de serviços e controle de custos em obras de construção civil

The increasing competitiveness of the construction industry, set in an economic environment in which the offer is now greater than the demand , causes the prices of many products and services, are strongly influenced by the processes of production and the final consumer. Thus, to become more competitive in the market and construction companies are seeking new alternatives to reduce and control costs, production processes and tools that allow for close monitoring of the construction schedule, with the consequent compliance deadline with the client. Based on this scenario, the creation of control tools, service management and planning work emerges as an investment opportunity and an area that can promote great benefits to construction companies. The goal of this work is to present a system of planning, service management and costs control that through worksheets provide information relating to the production phase of the work, allowing the visualization of possible irregularities in the planning and cost of the enterprise, enabling the company to take steps to achieve the goals of the enterprise in question, and correct them when necessary. The developed system has been used in a piece of real estate in Rio Grande do Norte, and the results showed that its use together allowed the construction company to accompany their results and take corrective and preventive actions during the production process, efficiently and effective