Search results

In every city community, there always exist social, economic and political- administrative bodies, whose activities and organisational structures delineate and convey the historical and cultural periods experienced by that community.The city community we aim at investigating is the Sienese one. Siena is universally recognised for its medieval reminders, as well as for those of the Renaissance, distinctly appreciable in its current urban patterns, painting pieces, and cultural goods, of which it is plenty and rightly proud.The organisation we identified as one traditionally characterising –at least in the last century and a half- and still characterising the Sienese history and culture, is the Ricovero di Mendicità, later named Casa di riposo in Campansi per anziani, unanimously known as "Campansi".Undoubtedly, the Campansi one is not the only institution whose structural and operational evolution contributed – and keeps on contributing- to shape the history of Siena, from the social, political and institutional points of view. Nevertheless, it is surely one of the most peculiar ones, in that it has been involved in those charitable activities, which exalted Siena since the second millennium, at the time of the restoring and propitiatory journeys to the main religious destinations: Rome, Jerusalem, and Saint James of Compostela.In this study we adopt a business administration perspective, with particular reference to the structure of the accounting system and its related documentation, which the organisation had been producing in order to memorise, summarise and communicate its administrative events, these latter occurring from the exercise of its institutional function. Moreover, we acknowledge the related governance structure, selected with the purpose of making operational decisions, verifying their execution, and controlling the deriving effects. As a matter of fact, there is a tight interdependency between the governance structure and the accounting system of whichever organisation. Particularly, the investigation refers to the period we considered the most significant and interesting, the one comprised between the issuing of the law "Sull'Amministrazione delle Opere pie" (3rd August 1862) and law "Istituzioni pubbliche di beneficenza", in 1890, respectively known as Rattazzi and Crispi law, from the Prime Ministers in charge at the time of their enactment.

Abstract
This paper discusses post-New Public Management (NPM) approaches to current patterns of public management reforms as a path-dependent phenomenon and as proposing corrective solutions to unintended shortcomings of NPM-inspired reforms. Public sector accounting reforms are seen as developing coherently with general public managerial reforms, and as showing a shift in the prioritised purposes assigned to public accounts in line with the overall design of projected reform-making. EU public sector accounting harmonisation is interpreted in this framework, and the Italian experience of public sector accounting reform is discussed in the light of EU membership. Particular emphasis is given to the likely overlap between national and government accounting due to increasingly shared purposes, whereby the former acquires a functional supportive role to the latter. Considerations on the drivers, as well as on the technical solutions of the new Italian public sector accounting system, suggest that Italian public sector accounting has taken a step in the direction of European public sector accounting harmonisation. Finally, the Italian case provides evidence of post-NPM-like accounting reform, contributing to the scanty empirical research on this topic.

Abstract Immense uncertainty and the need for drastic interventions cause politicians to rely heavily on scientific advice for underpinning or legitimating their COVID-19 decision-making. This paper explores the role of scientific advice in this policy field in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. It shows that scientific advice is based on the disciplinary, mainly medical, backgrounds of advisors but is also influenced by social and economic values, which are core to what politicians find important. During the pandemic a growing gap between scientific advice and political decisions is observed.

Financial accountability is a major issue for State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) especially because of the large amount of public resources invested in them and the social relevance of their performance. In the awareness that the public interest is increasingly pursued in abstract arenas, the investigation of accounting should be anchored to conceptual rather than contextual spaces. Building on the dimensional concept of publicness, this paper investigates the impact of three publicness dimensions (ownership, political control, and goal ambiguity) on earnings management (EM) in SOEs, a managerial practice that affects the quality of financial accountability. Drawing on data from a sample of 1200 Italian SOEs, the conditional revenue model (Stubben, 2010) is used to estimate their EM during the period 2009–2017. These EM estimates are then regressed against dimensions of publicness. Findings show that publicness is either neutral or relevant for the quality of SOEs' financial accountability, depending on the dimensions analysed: while ownership and financial control are positively related to EM in SOEs, administrative control and goal ambiguity are not statistically significant predictors of EM. Moreover, the interaction of publicness dimensions does not affect EM in SOEs. Therefore, this paper shows that SOEs' publicness is either irrelevant or detrimental to the quality of SOEs' financial accountability, depending on the dimension of publicness considered. Efforts should be made to define policies and governance arrangements able to influence managers' behaviour in a way that preserves SOEs' financial accountability.

Purpose
At exceptional times, governments are entrusted with greater authority. This creates significant concerns over governments' transparency and accountability. This paper aims to pursue a twofold objective: assessing the patterns of open government data during the extraordinary time initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic drawing relevant policy and managerial implications regarding the future development of open data as a mechanism of accountability at times of exception.


Design/methodology/approach
The study follows exploratory research, relying on a web content analysis. The empirical setting is provided by 20 Italian regional governments during the COVID-19 pandemic as a shock that has triggered an exceptional time for governments.


Findings
Results on the desirable (extrinsic and intrinsic) characteristics of the data analyzed show that in the empirical setting investigated, open data does not enable to properly address the accountability concerns of a demanding forum at times of exception.


Research limitations/implications
The paper enriches the state of the art on accountability and provides both scholars and practitioners (e.g. policymakers, managers, etc.) a current reading of data-driven orientation as a stimulus to the accountability of public administrations during exceptional times.


Originality/value
The paper investigates open data as a condition of public accountability, assessing whether and how Italian regional governments have concretely opened their data to enable their forums to elaboration of an informed opinion about their conduct during the ongoing pandemic. This fosters the understanding of how accountability is deployed in times of exception in light of the possibilities offered by the availability of online platforms.

AbstractIntroductionDental extractions can be safely carried out on patients under vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) therapy, without stopping or changing the dosage, but the international normalized ratio (INR) needs to be monitored on the day of the intervention, showing adequate rates before proceeding.ObjectivesThis study aims at evaluating INR values, measured before oral surgery procedures, to assess the rate of patients, under VKAs therapy, outside the therapeutic range.Materials and methodsA clinical audit was carried out involving patients under VKAs, who needed minor oral surgery procedures, over a period of 18 months. The patient was instructed to not modify or suspend VKAs prior to the intervention. Before surgery, each patient fulfilled a questionnaire on dietary and oral hygiene habits, and a blood sample was collected for INR assessment (cut‐off value for surgical procedure ≤3.5).ResultsOne hundred twenty‐two patients were enrolled: 69 (56.6%) had an INR value within the established therapeutic range, 53 (43.4%) were out of range. No intra‐ or postsurgical major bleeding was recorded.ConclusionsINR, measured on the same day of oral surgery, has the potential to prevent bleeding complications by the identification of those patients out of range, who may require adjusting the drug therapeutic dosage.

Immense uncertainty and the need for drastic interventions cause politicians to rely heavily on scientific advice for underpinning or legitimating their COVID-19 decision-making. This paper explores the role of scientific advice in this policy field in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. It shows that scientific advice is based on the disciplinary, mainly medical, backgrounds of advisors but is also influenced by social and economic values, which are core to what politicians find important. During the pandemic a growing gap between scientific advice and political decisions is observed.

Immense uncertainty and the need for drastic interventions cause politicians to rely heavily on scientific advice for underpinning or legitimating their COVID-19 decision-making. This paper explores the role of scientific advice in this policy field in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. It shows that scientific advice is based on the disciplinary, mainly medical, back-grounds of advisors but is also influenced by social and economic values, which are core to what politicians find important. During the pandemic, a growing gap between scientific advice and political decisions is observed.