The Annual Municipal Accounts as a basis for comparing municipalities - are the cost indicator reliable?
Municipal accounting: more standardized or more controlled Municipalities report among others, their costs, which cannot be directly attributed to any specific activity, product, or service. Standardized taxonomies exist, but they are not applied uniformly. Swedish NAO traces ramifications: lower ability to compare municipalities' data and need of more central level control.
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Coordination of Infrastructure Works by Metropolitan Municipalities
Rapid population growth at metropoles as well as dense and planless structuring, especially in İstanbul and Ankara, have lead to an increase in demand for utilities services and consequently ... , in the resources used for the construction and maintenance of utilities. Moreover, in cities with dense population, damages to roads and sidewalks during the construction and maintenance of utilities cause problems ... in daily life, create financial burden and necessitate effective solutions. The purpose of this audit is to ensure that metropolitan municipalities eradicate defects in implementation, and Ministry ... ... ... Start geographic information system with cooperation rules and digital maps ... Organization of geographic and infrastructure information systems is an especially difficult task when bacause vast and intense coordination is necessary. The Turkisch Court of Accounts lists ... problems that reduce use and rise costs of this fundamental task.
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Open Data Trend Report 2015
How to activate the open data policy The Dutch SAI looks for ways to improve open data practice in the Netherlands. They point at experience of two leading countries: UK and US, and advise to: prepare a concrete action plan, to increase number of mandatory published data, to develop government-wide data inventory and to put open data to work.
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Evaluation of the effectiveness of implementation and compliance with regulatory enactments and the legal framework of the project “E-government Portfolio”
The objective of the audit is to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation and compliance with regulatory enactments and the legal framework of the project “Egovernment Portfolio” of the national ... programme of the European Regional Development Fund (hereinafter: ERDF) of the European Union (hereinafter: EU), “Development and improvement of the infrastructural foundation for electronic governance”. ... ... Funds to absorb but no efficient project methodology? Be prepared for troubles ... Wide list of problems that can be met when more care is received by 'absorb funds' objective than by clear vision what and how can be improved. SAI Latvia's analysis shows how dangerous it can ... be for both effectiveness and financial management.
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Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions
Objective of the audit was to verify compliance of software recording and management with regulatory enactments, as well as to assess the effectiveness of software management in local governments ... and local government educational institutions. ... ... Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions ... Manage your software! Local governments and local government education institution neglect basic safety procedures, use outdated or illegal kinds of software, use two and more different software ... for the same function.
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Correlations between the operational risks of companies in the majority ownership of local governments and the financial situation of the local governments
Risks related to local governments-owned companies The Hungarian SAI analysed four risk areas, taking 19 aspects and the specificities of Hungary’s settlement patterns into consideration. The four areas defined were the following: performance of public tasks, exercise of proprietary rights, financial stability of local governments, and short and medium-term stability of the financial management of companies.
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Submission of data to national databases in municipalities, towns and cities
The National Audit Office analysed the activities of the database managers following a ruling made by the Supreme Court in 2010, which stated that the public functions assigned to local authorities ... must be clearly financed from the state budget. It was also assessed whether the measures taken by database managers have been sufficient to guarantee that local authorities submit all required data ... and that these data are correct. ... ... Funds as basic factor of data processing ... The NAO of Estonia audited the activities of state agencies in the management of the database selected for the audit, to which local authorities are obliged to submit data. It was found that in most ... cases the state does not compensate the costs of data submission for local governments.
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Digitisation of municipal services
The purpose of digitisation is to increase the quality and efficiency of public services. It is a goal to make online services the norm for public administration's communication with citizens ... and the private sector. The municipal sector is a significant provider of public services, and digitisation of municipal services is therefore essential for achieving this goal.<br/>The audit surveyed the status ... , assessed the significance of and possible obstacles to digitisation of municipal services. The audit examined how the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation's use of policy instruments contributes ... ... Municipalities have not digitised their services to any extent ... Digitisation increases the quality and efficiency of public services and municipal sector is a significant provider of public services. Report of Riksrevisjonen of Norway shows however ... , that municipalities need a substantial support to execute this demanding task. To provide them with help, the central government has to coordinate own efforts first.
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