The Number of Militia Called into the Public Service in 1813

Full Title: Letters from the Secretary of War to the Committee of Ways and Means, in relation to the number of Militia called into the public service in 1813, to a provision for paying the bounties and premiums to soldiers lately authorized, and to the strength of the army March, 3, 1814. Read, and ordered to be printed. U.S. 13th Congress 2nd Session, 1813-1814. House.

Decentralization and local government performance improving public service provision in Bolivia.

Este artículo analiza algunas de las justificaciones más importantes para el desarrollo de procesos de descentralización, analiza sus fundamentos teóricos, y posteriormente describe los elementos de una nueva teoría descentralización, la cual debería llevarnos más lejos en nuestro entendimiento de la efectividad y las implicaciones de la descentralización. Finalmente y de forma más importante, revisamos una gran cantidad de nueva información sobre los efectos de la descentralización en Bolivia. Encontramos fuerte evidencia de que la devolución de recursos y poderes a los gobiernos locales han (i) incrementado en la eficiencia de asignación en el sector público boliviano, (ii) generado una mayor estabilidad en los patrones de inversión pública entre sectores, (iii) llevado a un gobierno más orientado a las necesidades locales de lo que había sido posible a través de gobiernos centralizados, y (iv) muy probablemente incrementado el criterio de costo efectividad del sector público.

A design of e-procurement infrastructure model for public service sector

Procurement is one of major business operations in public service sector. The advance of information and communication technology (ICT) pushes this business operation to increase its efficiency and foster collaborations between the organization and its suppliers. This leads to a shift from the traditional procurement transactions to an e-procurement paradigm. Such change impacts on business process, information management and decision making. E-procurement involves various stakeholders who engage in activities based on different social and cultural practices. Therefore, a design of e-procurement system may involve complex situations analysis. This paper describes an approach of using the problem articulation method to support such analysis. This approach is applied to a case study from UAE.

A new screen face for public service broadcasting

The contemporary broadcasting industry is characterised by technological and social change, it is increasingly competitive, and the media industry is fragmenting. New services need not necessarily compete with existing free-to-air broadcasting but could act as further incentive for audiences to invest in new equipment. New equipment will be necessary in the future as set out under the Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Act 2000 (Cth), before the planned switch-off of analogue broadcasts planned for this year but now likely to be 2013. By then, however, audiences might already have migrated to the online environment for television and radio content as well as other services. Those that produce and deliver programs via free-to-air broadcasting need to consider what audiences do with new media in order to engage them. This will be an ongoing process as technology and audience expectations continue to change. Against such a background, this article examines how Australia’s public broadcasters are responding to the new media environment. It will consider their interactive online programs and services with specific analysis of ABC’s new ‘iView’ and ‘ABC Fora’ which offer content on-demand. It will also examine SBS online initiatives. I wish to argue that the new media offer public broadcasters new prospects to provide forums and spaces for education, entertainment, public discussion and interaction online.

Effectiveness of the development of internal auditing in the Victorian Public Service (1982-1987)

The selection of an inappropriate regime by policy makers can thwart the effective implementation of public policy and lead to implementation failure. Competing values in the implementation process have a significant impact on the results of implementation, and the regime selected for implementation implies the choice of one value over another. Stoker has argued that on the one hand central leadership is valued for consistency, benefits of scale, co-ordination and cost sharing (instrumental model); and on the other, diffuse authority is valued as knowledge is particular and situational, and the task of analysis is to understand the problems, perspectives and interactions of implementation participants at the contact point between public programs and their clients (accommodation model). This study examines the implementation regime chosen by the Victorian Government for the introduction of a modern internal auditing function into the Victorian Public Service, using the Bureau of Internal Audit within its Department of Management and Budget. The selection of the Department of Management and Budget for the introduction of Internal Audit as a managerial accountability mechanism indicates that the instrumental model was held by the Victorian Government to be the most important in implementation. It is argued that use of a top-down central agency leadership approach resulted in implementation failure. Three propositions suggesting the mechanisms by which this result is brought about are examined: that lack of co-ordinated planning at the outset will result in inadequate definition of client needs as part of policy formulation; that intraorganisational conflict during the implementation success, as individual participants are likely to exercise their veto; and the increasing the number of participants contributes to complexity, so that they should only be involved in implementation when their presence is absolutely required. It is argued that the essential task of implementation is to create an environment where participants are likely to co-operate to achieve predetermined public policy goals; and that the introduction of a modern internal auditing approach into the Victorian Public Service required a more participatory implementation regime in order to facilitate policy outcomes and prevent implementation failure. It is also argued that the dominance of economic reform over accountability in Victoria restricted the ability of the Bureau of Internal Audit to implement change to internal audit practices within Victorian Government departments. The selection of an instrumental model of implementation by the Department of Management and Budget is examined in the context of the environment that existed in Victoria between 1982-1987; and while some of the values which Stoker associates with the top-down approach to policy making were observed, an alternative view to the development of internal auditing in the Victorian Public Service can be sustained.

Commercial influence on Indian public-service broadcasting

In the UK, the Conservative Party has been drafting a proposal to withhold part of the consumers' broadcasting licence fee from the BBC and place it in a contestable fund for public-service programming. In Australia, the ABC continues to struggle to meet its funding requirements just when the Federal conservative coalition government is considering a bid to use public funding to engage a commercial consortium to run the country's Asia-Pacific television channel and so take it away from the ABC. These struggles for independence and for an appropriate level of funding are part of the landscape of public-service broadcasting in many developed countries. Those who believe in the public-service ethos are concerned about the potential diminishing value of these great broadcasting assets because of the privatisation and commercialisation. However, this is the story of another public-service broadcaster - Doordarshan in India - which has had to live with severe competition from the skies since 1991. As the former dominant broadcaster in the largest democracy in the world, Doordarshan has survived and revived itself many times in the past four and a half decades. However, it continues to struggle to fulfil its role as a mass medium for education and entertainment. This paper explores the role of public-service broadcasting using Doordarshan as a case study. It asks: Does commercialisation of this public broadcaster mean privatisation by stealth or does it provide healthy distance between the broadcaster and the government of the day?

Values inquiry into leadership development in the Australian public service

The thesis identified that senior executives of the Australian Public Service are positioned in a contentious role and that mastery of the values dynamic – values language acumen, assessment of ethical priorities, adeptness at
holding strategic values conversations and awareness of personal values –
enabled mediation of role conflict and ethical leadership.