Westminster can learn a lot about gender equality by looking at Welsh and Scottish levels of political representation

Discrimination and under-representation of women is still overt and visible in politics. Diana Silvia Stirbu argues that progress on the gender equality agenda doesn’t come easily, but it is possible through a combination of structural, political and cultural factors. Westminster can learn a lot from the successes in the Welsh National Assembly and Scottish Parliament

Public Engagement in the Welsh Parliament

This article provides an analysis of public engagement as it is practised and conceptualised by the Welsh Parliament. It does so by applying an interpretive framework to elite interviews and parliamentary committee report forewords, in order to identify institutional narratives of public engagement. These narratives are identified and discussed at three different levels of decision-making (and in ascending levels of ‘abstraction’): practice, strategy, and concept. The chosen framework and methodology show the usefulness of narrative at a conceptual and analytical level. The conclusions drawn – regarding 1) the need for a shift from public-facing to public-engaging committee work, 2) a lack of clarity on desired outcomes, and 3) continued tensions around sources of evidence and knowledge – are relevant and applicable to parliaments across a range of contexts

Case study over the employee’s benefits and pension plan accounting

The study indicates in its introduction IAS 19’s and IAS 26’s objectives continued by a detailed presentation of the employee’s benefits and pension plans. The essay represents a study over the benefit-determined pension plans, emphasizing, as a result of a comparing analysis, the main differences between the two major pension plans categories. At the end of the essay one can observe the conclusions that have been drawn as a result of the conducted study regarding the obtained results.benefit-determined pension plans, contribution-determined pension plans, short-term employee benefits, long-term employee benefits, benefit-determined obligation’s actualized value.

Assessing Resilience in Youth (U16) Volleyball National Teams

The objective of this study was to investigate the resilience of youth high level volleyball players. Forty-eight volleyball national team players U16 from Greece and Romania participated to the study (18 females and 30 males). The Self Evaluation Resilience test was used for the study. The data were analyzed with SPSS 21.0 using one-way ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni adjustment test. Results showed statistically significant differences between the males and females national team volleyball players in variables ‘‘healthy lifestyle’’ and ‘‘self-efficacy’’. It was concluded that coaches and volleyball players should recognize that female’s volleyball players focused more in healthy life style and having less self-efficacy comparing to same aged male’s volleyball players

THE "CREDIBILITY CRISIS" OF AUDITING PROFFESION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN ROMANIA

For decades the accountancy profession has responded to the "credibility crisis" by coining, reciting and hiding behind the phrase "audit expectation gap" - a phrase which denotes the differences between the public's and Auditors' perceptions of the role of an audit function. This paper reports the findings of a questionnaire survey on the audit expectation gap conducted in Romania. The aims of the study are to examine whether an expectation gap exists in Romania among the auditors, auditees and audit beneficiaries in relation to the auditors' duties The results proved the existence of an audit expectation gap in Romania. The study shows that the auditees and audit beneficiaries placed much higher expectations on the auditors' duties when compared with what auditors have perceived their duties to be. The analysis of the expectation gap indicated the existence of unreasonable expectations of the part of users.audit, audit expectation gap

How democratic are the basic structures of the UK’s devolution settlement?

Devolution encompasses a range of quite different solutions in three countries (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), plus markedly smaller delegations of powers to London and some English cities and regions. There remain important issues around the stability and effectiveness of these arrangements, which were designed to meet specific demands for national or regional control and to bring government closer to citizens. In an article from our book, The UK’s Changing Democracy, Diana Stirbu and Patrick Dunleavy explore how far relations between Westminster and the key devolved institutions have been handled democratically and effectively

CompliancePal: A Tool for Supporting Practical Agile and Regulatory-Compliant Development of Medical Software

As digital transformation affects more and more industries, the increased role of software and the skills required to develop software trigger a ripple effect. Entire industries, where regulations and government standards play an important role (e.g. health care, avionics, etc.), have used long development cycles that relied on detailed up-front planning before advancing to any detailed decision. In contrast to this mindset, agile software development has proven to deliver results that satisfy customers needs faster than traditional waterfall methodologies. The lack of detailed upfront planning and fast delivery cycles have led to situations where the use of agile became synonymous with lack of documentation and poor quality, and hence the perception that the approach is not suitable for regulated systems. In this experience paper we describe the implementation of a service that integrates medical device software compliance specific activities such as architectural design and limited risk management into the daily agile practices of a software development team.Peer reviewe

Chronicling National Assembly committees as markers of institutional change

This article examines changes to the National Assembly for Wales committees and how they act as markers that help explain the dynamics of a significant and contemporaneous constitutional journey. It uses as its backdrop recent constitutional and political change in the UK, particularly that initiated by devolution. Uniquely, we draw upon management theory as well as political science to explain why changes in the focus, identity and profile of Assembly committees represent significant markers or reflectors of constitutional shifts. We suggest that examining key components within the internal architecture of parliaments at different stages of development offers an additional and complementary level of institutional analysis. Our review of the Assembly committees reveals that they have reflected the pace and shape of change in Welsh devolution, and that shifts in their profile and operation offer another insight into devolution, whilst also reflecting wider institutional and political change

FRAUD AND ERROR. AUDITORS' RESPONSIBILITY LEVELS

Are auditors responsible for detecting fraud in the companies they inspect? Most ofthe public thinks they are. Auditors often demur. The auditors' duties for the prevention, detectionand reporting of fraud, other illegal acts and errors is one of the most controversial issues inauditing. This paper reports the findings of a survey that explores the financial report users’perceptions on the extent of fraud in Romania and their perceptions of auditors’ responsibilities indetecting fraud and the related audit procedures. This study also finds that there is a widely heldmisperception of the objective of an audit. This is because, among respondents, a much higherexpectation has been placed on the auditors' duties in detecting and reporting fraud than statute oraudit standards require. The results of the study show unquestionably the existence, with respect todetection of fraud, of a gap between the perception of the respondents and the present statutoryrequirements of auditors.fraud; auditors’ responsibilities; audit expectation gap

The basic structure of the devolution settlements

Devolution encompasses a range of quite different solutions in three countries (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), plus markedly smaller delegations of powers to London and some English cities and regions. There remain important issues around the stability and effectiveness of these arrangements, which were designed to meet specific demands for national or regional control and to bring government closer to citizens. Diana Stirbu and Patrick Dunleavy explore how far relations between Westminster and the key devolved institutions have been handled democratically and effectively