Orientações pedagógicas no estágio supervisionado de educação física na Colômbia, Brasil, Argentina e Chile

Pós-graduação em Ciências da Motricidade - IBRC

Community managed rural water supply systems in the Dominican Republic : assessment of sustainability of systems built by the National Institute of Potable Water and Peace Corps, Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic economic growth in the past twenty years has not yielded sufficient improvement in access to drinking water services, especially in rural areas where 1.5 million people do not have access to an improved water source (WHO, 2006). Worldwide, strategic development planning in the rural water sector has focused on participatory processes and the use of demand filters to ensure that service levels match community commitment to post-project operation and maintenance. However studies have concluded that an alarmingly high percentage of drinking water systems (20-50%) do not provide service at the design levels and/or fail altogether (up to 90%): BNWP (2009), Annis (2006), and Reents (2003). World Bank, USAID, NGOs, and private consultants have invested significant resources in an effort to determine what components make up an “enabling environment” for sustainable community management of rural water systems (RWS). Research has identified an array of critical factors, internal and external to the community, which affect long term sustainability of water services. Different frameworks have been proposed in order to better understand the linkages between individual factors and sustainability of service. This research proposes a Sustainability Analysis Tool to evaluate the sustainability of RWS, adapted from previous relevant work in the field to reflect the realities in the Dominican Republic. It can be used as a diagnostic tool for government entities and development organizations to characterize the needs of specific communities and identify weaknesses in existing training regimes or support mechanisms. The framework utilizes eight indicators in three categories (Organization/Management, Financial Administration, and Technical Service). Nineteen independent variables are measured resulting in a score of sustainability likely (SL), possible (SP), or unlikely (SU) for each of the eight indicators. Thresholds are based upon benchmarks from the DR and around the world, primary data collected during the research, and the author’s 32 months of field experience. A final sustainability score is calculated using weighting factors for each indicator, derived from Lockwood (2003). The framework was tested using a statistically representative geographically stratified random sample of 61 water systems built in the DR by initiatives of the National Institute of Potable Water (INAPA) and Peace Corps. The results concluded that 23% of sample systems are likely to be sustainable in the long term, 59% are possibly sustainable, and for 18% it is unlikely that the community will be able to overcome any significant challenge. Communities that were scored as unlikely sustainable perform poorly in participation, financial durability, and governance while the highest scores were for system function and repair service. The Sustainability Analysis Tool results are verified by INAPA and PC reports, evaluations, and database information, as well as, field observations and primary data collected during the surveys. Future research will analyze the nature and magnitude of relationships between key factors and the sustainability score defined by the tool. Factors include: gender participation, legal status of water committees, plumber/operator remuneration, demand responsiveness, post construction support methodologies, and project design criteria.

Eliminating Modern Day Slavery

All too often, human trafficking victims – like victims of other crimes – are overlooked. When these victims are in need of support and resources, our governments are often underprepared and overburdened. As public servants, Congressman Ted Poe and State Senator Leticia Van de Putte recognize the deficiency in attention and resources dedicated to trafficked victims at both levels of government. Federal and state governments should provide the necessary resources for victims and victim service providers and help facilitate restitution for trafficking victims. In addition, the federal and state governments should help raise awareness of this crime’s impact on our nation. The problem of human trafficking cannot be dealt with at only one level of government. It will take the cooperation of all relevant local, state, and federal government entities to truly make an impact in combating human trafficking in the United States. We will continue to be a voice in Washington and in the State of Texas for victims and victim advocates to provide the needed resources for victims around the country and to draw attention to growing concerns surrounding human trafficking.

Assisting national governments in governance, risk, and compliance:implementation of project management offices

Currently, there are many instances where public sector organizations and government entities collapse and are unable to provide the required services to the public. Such organizations do not have effective mechanisms of control or any specific department which manages projects occurring in the organization. However, this study suggests the incorporation of the Project Management Office (PMO) in public sector organizations for the purpose of managing project management. There are other relevant roles of the PMO discussed in this study. The study is contextualized with respect to Corporate Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) and the study shows how PMO can benefit or compliment GRC and provide overall better standards of practice for public sector organizations. The study uses a mixed methodology for data collection and the findings contribute to the body of knowledge regarding PMO's and GRC.

Performance accountability in the federal-state transportation program: Factors affecting successful implementation

Governmental accountability is the requirement of government entities to be accountable to the citizenry in order to justify the raising and expenditure of public resources. The concept of service efforts and accomplishments measurement for government programs was introduced by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting: Its Time Has Come (1990). This research tested the feasibility of implementing the concept for the Federal-aid highway construction program and identified factors affecting implementation with a case study of the District of Columbia. Changes in condition and performance ratings for specific highway segments in 15 projects, before and after construction expenditures, were evaluated using data provided by the Federal Highway Administration. The results of the evaluation indicated difficulty in drawing conclusions on the state program performance, as a whole. The state program reflects problems within the Federally administered program that severely limit implementation of outcome-oriented performance measurement. Major problems identified with data acquisition are: data reliability, availability, compatibility and consistency among states. Other significant factors affecting implementation are institutional barriers and political barriers. Institutional issues in the Federal Highway Administration include the lack of integration of the fiscal project specific database with the Highway Performance Monitoring System database. The Federal Highway Administration has the ability to resolve both of the data problems, however interviews with key Federal informants indicate this will not occur without external directives and changes to the Federal “stewardship” approach to program administration. ^ The findings indicate many issues must be resolved for successful implementation of outcome-oriented performance measures in the Federal-aid construction program. The issues are organizational and political in nature, however in the current environment resolution is possible. Additional research is desirable and would be useful in overcoming the obstacles to successful implementation. ^

Identificação do potencial renovável para produção de electricidade na perspectiva da microgeração

Tese submetida à Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e aprovada em provas públicas para a obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Energia e Ambiente (especialidade em Energia e Desenvolvimento Sustentável).

Os sistemas integrados de gestão na Administração Pública : Estratégias de desenvolvimento e reorientação organizacional. Estudo de um caso

Os Organismos públicos encontram-se, actualmente, a desenvolver estudos a nível dos Sistemas Integrados de Gestão, motivados pela necessidade que existe em adoptar novas técnicas de Gestão capazes de responder às novas exigências de informação. Em termos gerais, os Organismos públicos encontram-se numa fase de viragem na sua actuação, em que surge a necessidade de dispor de novos sistemas de informação capazes de dar resposta às exigências da Nova Gestão Pública. É certo que a Nova Gestão Pública conduz a uma maior motivação, proporcionando uma melhoria na obtenção dos resultados e modernizando a relação entre o controlo das despesas públicas e a prestação de contas a nível dos órgãos do Estado, e onde a uniformização de critérios se apresenta como um dos principais requisitos para criar condições de implementação de uma contabilidade pública que funcione como instrumento de apoio aos utilizadores da informação e, em particular, aos Órgãos de Chefia e Direcção. Este trabalho analisa o caso do Exército Português, como exemplo de um Organismo público que aproveitou a obrigatoriedade de adesão ao novo Regime de Administração Financeira do Estado, para promover a implementação de um Sistema Integrado de Gestão capaz de responder às novas exigências de informação. Analisam-se também as estratégias de actuação e reorientação organizacional utilizadas pelo Exército Português, de modo a permitir o desenvolvimento e implementação do sistema baseado na uniformização de critérios que garanta os requisitos e as técnicas de Gestão capazes de criar condições para desenvolver uma contabilidade pública que funcione como instrumento de apoio à decisão. ABSTRACT; At present, government entities are developing studies at an Integrated Management System level, impelled by the actual need of adopting new Management techniques capable of responding to the new demands regarding Information. ln global terms, government entities are reaching a turning point in its way of acting, due to the arising need of settling new information systems which provide an answer to the demands of the New Public Management. It is assured that the New Public Management leads to a higher motivation, providing an improvement in accomplishing results and modernizing the link between the control of public expenditure and presenting accounts of State Organs. It also presents the criteria standards as one of the main requirements to create implementation conditions of a public accounting which operates as a support mean to the information users and, more specifically, to the Command and Boarding Bodies. This study analyses the Portuguese Army, an example of government entity which seized the obligation of joining the New Public Financial Management Regime to promote the implementation of an Integrated Management System capable of responding to the new information demands. The performing strategies and organizational refocus used by the Portuguese Army are also analyzed in order to allow the development and implementation of the system. It is based in the standard criteria that secure the requirements and Management techniques which enable the progress of a public accounting acting as a support resource in decision-making.

Análise de risco para computação em nuvem

Têm-se notado nos últimos anos um crescimento na adoção de tecnologias de computação em nuvem, com uma adesão inicial por parte de particulares e pequenas empresas, e mais recentemente por grandes organizações. Esta tecnologia tem servido de base ao aparecimento de um conjunto de novas tendências, como a Internet das Coisas ligando os nossos equipamentos pessoais e wearables às redes sociais, processos de big data que permitem tipificar comportamentos de clientes ou ainda facilitar a vida ao cidadão com serviços de atendimento integrados. No entanto, tal como em todas as novas tendências disruptivas, que trazem consigo um conjunto de oportunidades, trazem também um conjunto de novos riscos que são necessários de serem equacionados. Embora este caminho praticamente se torne inevitável para uma grande parte de empresas e entidades governamentais, a sua adoção como funcionamento deve ser alvo de uma permanente avaliação e monitorização entre as vantagens e riscos associados. Para tal, é fundamental que as organizações se dotem de uma eficiente gestão do risco, de modo que possam tipificar os riscos (identificar, analisar e quantificar) e orientar-se de uma forma segura e metódica para este novo paradigma. Caso não o façam, os riscos ficam evidenciados, desde uma possível perda de competitividade face às suas congéneres, falta de confiança dos clientes, dos parceiros de negócio e podendo culminar numa total inatividade do negócio. Com esta tese de mestrado desenvolve-se uma análise genérica de risco tendo como base a Norma ISO 31000:2009 e a elaboração de uma proposta de registo de risco, que possa servir de auxiliar em processos de tomada de decisão na contratação e manutenção de serviços de Computação em Nuvem por responsáveis de organizações privadas ou estatais.

Determining factors of environmental management practices in portuguese local entities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of environmental management practices by Portuguese local entities and their determining factors. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected by sending a postal questionnaire. In order to measure the degree of development of environmental management practices, an index of environmental management practices (EMPI) was developed, which reflects the extent to which a set of 16 environmental management practices have been implemented by the entities included in the sample. In total, four variables are considered in this study as possible factors that drive the development of environmental management practices by local entities: type of entity; size; proactive environmental strategy; and Local Agenda 21. Findings – Results indicate the degree of development of environmental management practices in Portuguese local entities is low. Additionally, entity size, the adoption of proactive environmental strategies and the implementation of Local Agenda 21 are explaining factors of the degree of development of such practices. Originality/value – The paper adds to the international research on environmental management in the public sector by providing empirical data from a country, Portugal, where empirical evidence is still relatively limited.

Enquadramento para a compreensão dos impactos do Open Government Data

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação

State Government E-Commerce Study Encouraging the Use of Electronic Financial Transactions With the Citizens of Iowa, January 20, 2006

This report was produced in compliance the 2005 Iowa Acts, Chapter 52 passed by the Eighty-First General Assembly, Session One (2005), requiring that it be submitted to the General Assembly by January 20, 2006. The legislative language mandating the report reads as follows: “It is the intent of the general assembly to encourage the use of electronic transactions with regard to the state's dealings with the citizens of Iowa and other persons. The department of administrative services shall develop recommendations, including proposed legislation, to encourage the use of electronic commerce, including the acceptance of credit card payments, with regard to transactions involving the state. The department shall consult with the state treasurer, state entities currently accepting credit card payments, and any other state entities identified as considering the acceptance of credit card payments when developing the recommendations. The department shall deliver a report to the general assembly by January 20, 2006, including any recommendations, proposed legislation, and other related information, including cost information associated with credit card payments.”

How useful is consolidation of public sector entities' financial statements ?

Whether or not to consolidate financial statements is dealt with in IPSAS#6. This standard is by and large based on IAS#27. It deals with the criterion according to which an entity's financial statements should be considered and which consolidation technique should be used. However, it remains silent when it comes to exposing the reason why a public sector entity should consolidate its financial statements. The literature is almost as silent as IPSAS on this issue. Which means that there is a lack of both theoretical and empirical knowledge on this subject. This paper explores the usefulness of the consolidation of financial statements (CFS) for different categories of users. It aims at investigating for which purposes consolidation is most useful and whether enlarging the scope of the consolidate group serves these purposes. Five purposes are considered: information, decision- making, accountability, risk-assessment, statistics improvement. The paper also aims at investigating if some categories of users consider CFS more useful than others. The issue is essentially empirical. Therefore it is examined in light of the results of an in-person interviews. We surveyed 25members of parliament, officials, creditors, and consultants of the Swiss central government. The results show that consolidating FS is considered especially important and useful for risk- assessment, information and accountability and to a somewhat lesser extent for decision-making and statistics improvement. Extending the scope of CFS may improve the situation when it comes to statistics but it would only marginally make CFS more relevant for decision making. Consultants and, to a lesser extent, members of the finance ministry are those respondents who deem the scope enlargement to be the most useful.

Solving identity delegation problem in the e-government environment

At present, many countries allow citizens or entities to interact with the government outside the telematic environment through a legal representative who is granted powers of representation. However, if the interaction takes place through the Internet, only primitive mechanisms of representation are available, and these are mainly based on non-dynamic offline processes that do not enable quick and easy identity delegation. This paper proposes a system of dynamic delegation of identity between two generic entities that can solve the problem of delegated access to the telematic services provided by public authorities. The solution herein is based on the generation of a delegation token created from a proxy certificate that allows the delegating entity to delegate identity to another on the basis of a subset of its attributes as delegator, while also establishing in the delegation token itself restrictions on the services accessible to the delegated entity and the validity period of delegation. Further, the paper presents the mechanisms needed to either revoke a delegation token or to check whether a delegation token has been revoked. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Effects of IFRS adoption on the financial statements of Nigerian listed entities: the case of oil and gas companies

On 28 July 2010, the Nigerian Federal Executive Council approved January 1, 2012 as the effective date for the convergence of Nigerian Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS) or Nigerian GAAP (NG-GAAP) with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). By this pronouncement, all publicly listed companies and significant public interest entities in Nigeria were statutorily required to issue IFRS based financial statements for the year ended December, 2012. This study investigates the impact of the adoption of IFRS on the financial statements of Nigerian listed Oil and Gas entities using six years of data which covers three years before and three years after IFRS adoption in Nigeria and other African countries. First, the study evaluates the impact of IFRS adoption on the Exploration and Evaluation (E&E) expenditures of listed Oil and Gas companies. Second, it examines the impact of IFRS adoption on the provision for decommissioning of Oil and Gas installations and environmental rehabilitation expenditures. Third, the study analyses the impact of the adoption of IFRS on the average daily Crude Oil production cost per Barrel. Fourth, it examines the extent to which the adoption and implementation of IFRS affects the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of listed Oil and Gas companies. The study further explores the impact of IFRS adoption on the contractual relationships between Nigerian Government and Oil and Gas companies in terms of Joint Ventures (JVs) and Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) as it relates to taxes, royalties, bonuses and Profit Oil Split. A Paired Samples t-test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and Gray’s (Gray, 1980) Index of Conservatism analyses were conducted simultaneously where the accounting numbers, financial ratios and industry specific performance measures of GAAP and IFRS were computed and analysed and the significance of the differences of the mean, median and Conservatism Index values were compared before and after IFRS adoption. Questionnaires were then administered to the key stakeholders in the adoption and implementation of IFRS and the responses collated and analysed. The results of the analyses reveal that most of the accounting numbers, financial ratios and industry specific performance measures examined changed significantly as a result of the transition from GAAP to IFRS. The E&E expenditures and the mean cost of Crude Oil production per barrel of Oil and Gas companies increased significantly. The GAAP values of inventories, GPM, ROA, Equity and TA were also significantly different from the IFRS values. However, the differences in the provision for decommissioning expenditures were not statistically significant. Gray’s (Gray, 1980) Conservatism Index shows that Oil and Gas companies were more conservative under GAAP when compared to the IFRS regime. The Questionnaire analyses reveal that IFRS based financial statements are of higher quality, easier to prepare and present to management and easier to compare among competitors across the Oil and Gas sector but slightly more difficult to audit compared to GAAP based financial statements. To my knowledge, this is the first empirical research to investigate the impact of IFRS adoption on the financial statements of listed Oil and Gas companies. The study will therefore make an enormous contribution to academic literature and body of knowledge and void the existing knowledge gap regarding the impact and implications of IFRS adoption on the financial statements of Oil and Gas companies.

Annual report on the implementation of the State Government Energy Conservation

The South Carolina General Assembly passed legislation in early June 2008 requiring all state agencies to develop energy conservation plans to reduce their energy consumption by one percent per year during fiscal years 2009-2013 and by a total of a 20 percent reduction in energy use by 2020. This legislation requires that each of these entities develop an energy conservation plan that addresses how it will meet energy use reduction goals and submit it to SCEO. This annual report reports the statewide progress in meeting the energy use reduction goals.