Independent Electoral Commission Code of Conduct for Observers

The Independent Electoral Commission’s Code of Conduct for South African election observers for the 1994 South Africa General Election.https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/saelection/1000/thumbnail.jp

South African Elections Manual for International Observers

A manual produced by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for election observers of the 1994 South Africa General Election.https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/saelection/1001/thumbnail.jp

Review of protected disclosure procedures: section 60 of the Protected Disclosure Act 2012

A review of the procedures established and implemented by government and local government agencies following the introduction of the Protected Disclosure Act 2012 (the PD Act). Executive summary In Victoria, public bodies that can receive disclosures are required to establish and publish procedures about making, handling and notifying disclosures. All public bodies are required to establish and publish procedures about protecting people from detrimental action taken in reprisal for making a disclosure. The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission reviewed the procedures established and implemented by government and local government agencies following the introduction of the Protected Disclosure Act 2012 (the PD Act)

Whither Capitalism? Financial externalities and crisis

As with global warming, so with financial crises – externalities have a lot to answer for. We look at three of them. First the financial accelerator due to ‘fire sales’ of collateral assets -- a form of pecuniary externality that leads to liquidity being undervalued. Second the ‘risk- shifting’ behaviour of highly-levered financial institutions who keep the upside of risky investment while passing the downside to others thanks to limited liability. Finally, the network externality where the structure of the financial industry helps propagate shocks around the system unless this is checked by some form of circuit breaker, or ‘ring-fence’. The contrast between crisis-induced Great Recession and its aftermath of slow growth in the West and the rapid - and (so far) sustained - growth in the East suggests that successful economic progress may depend on how well these externalities are managed

An analysis of the possible impact of mandatory audit firm rotation on the transformation and market concentration of the South African audit industry

Abstract: Orientation: Consistent with global concerns regarding the quality of audits and regulatory changes in Europe, South African audit regulations will require audit firms to rotate clients periodically, in an attempt to safeguard auditor independence and audit quality. In 2017 the South African audit regulator issued a ruling requiring mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR) every 10 years, effective April 2023, primarily intended to improve audit quality. In addition to audit quality improvement, the regulator also believes that MAFR will stimulate transformation in the audit profession by building capacity of black-owned audit firms and allowing opportunities for small- and medium-tier audit firms to compete for the audits of listed companies..

The spirit of sport: the case for criminalisation of doping in the UK

This article examines public perceptions of doping in sport, critically evaluates the effectiveness of current anti-doping sanctions and proposes the criminalisation of doping in sport in the UK as part of a growing global movement towards such criminalisation at national level. Criminalising doping is advanced on two main grounds: as a stigmatic deterrent and as a form of retributive punishment enforced through the criminal justice system. The ‘spirit of sport’ defined by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as being based on the values of ethics, health and fair-play is identified as being undermined by the ineffectiveness of existing anti-doping policy in the current climate of doping revelations, and is assessed as relevant to public perceptions and the future of sport as a whole. The harm-reductionist approach permitting the use of certain performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is considered as an alternative to anti-doping, taking into account athlete psychology, the problems encountered in containing doping in sport through anti-doping measures and the effect of these difficulties on the ‘spirit of sport’. This approach is dismissed in favour of criminalising doping in sport based on the offence of fraud. It will be argued that the criminalisation of doping could act as a greater deterrent than existing sanctions imposed by International Federations, and, when used in conjunction with those sanctions, will raise the overall ‘price’ of doping. The revelations of corruption within the existing system of self-governance within sport have contributed to a disbelieving public and it will be argued that the criminalisation of doping in sport could assist in satisfying the public that justice is being done and in turn achieve greater belief in the truth of athletic performances

Notes on a scandal: the official enquiry into deviance and corruption in New Zealand police

Since 2004, the New Zealand Police Service has been engulfed by a series of scandals relating to allegations that officers have committed rape and sexual assault and conducted inappropriate sexual relations with vulnerable people. Moreover, it has been claimed that other officers engaged in corrupt practices to thwart the investigation and prosecution of criminal behaviour of police officers. In 2007, a Commission of Inquiry report established a program of reform intended to shape the future direction of the police service. This article provides an overview of these scandals, the context in which they have emerged, and the political and policing response to them. The analysis contained in the Commission report is compared with that offered by comparable investigations of police deviance and corruption in other countries. The methodological and conceptual limitations of the Commission are outlined and the prospects of the recommendations are considered

Leadership, the logic of sufficiency and the sustainability of education

The notion of sufficiency has not yet entered mainstream educational thinking, and it still has to make its mark upon educational leadership. However, a number of related concepts – particularly those of sustainability and complexity theory – are beginning to be noticed. This article examines these two concepts and uses them to critique the quasi-economic notion of efficiency, before arguing that the concept of sufficiency arises naturally from this discussion. This concept, originally derived from environmental thinking, has both metaphorical and practical impact for educational organizations and their leadership. An examination of three possible meanings suggests that while an embrace of an imperative concept of sufficiency seems increasingly necessary, its adoption would probably lead to a number of other problems, as it challenges some fundamental societal values and assumptions. Nevertheless, the article argues that these need to be addressed for the sake of both sustainable leadership and a sustainable planet

Audio describing text on screen

This article is part of the research project "Accesibilidad lingüística y sensorial: tecnologías para las voces superpuestas y la audiodescripción", funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ref. FFI2012-31024), also supported by the Catalan Government (2014SGR27) and the EU project Hbb4ALL from the FP7 CIP-ICT-PSP.2013.5.1 # 621014.In the film under analysis text on screen appears in various forms: logos and both opening and final credits, inserts and intertitles, words written on various objects (ledger, riffle, newspaper, etc.), and subtitles. This chapter has described the many instances found and has suggested ways of approaching their audio description, taking into account the constraints posed by each particular scene. A short overview of the proposals found in the literature has also been presented, showing that logos and credits have attracted the attention of most guidelines. All in all, it has been demonstrated that text on screen often conveys meanings which help audiences make sense of the film and therefore it has to be carefully considered and integrated in the accessible version of the movie. The strategies to accomplish it successfully are varied, as previously described, and include diverging possibilities ranging from omission to a literal rendering of the text on screen. Moreover, the ways to indicate that text on screen is voiced are not uniform: the source of the text can be indicated ("A subtitle reads:" or "A caption:") but other strategies can be used such as changing the intonation, using another voice, or including an earcon, among others. Despite the many possibilities, only a thorough film analysis of the many codes used in each scene by describers and continuous testing with blind and visually impaired audiences by researchers will provide the best answer, which will probably have to be flexible enough to adapt to the many possible situations