GENERAL ORIENTATIONS OF THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Romanian public administration and new public management are in need of a series of modernization actions resulted from theoretical progresses on European level whose application proved to have positive effects. Among these modernization actions a focus on the following aspects must be mentioned: Ensuring the proper and transparent information levels and feed-back elements and social responsibility; Encouraging a proactive and prospective professional development; Ensuring of a public administration management which should support: interdisciplinary approach, focus on the quality of the public service, supporting the public-private partnership. Dealing with such priorities can determine the beginning of the public administration’s consecration as a European public administration, based on knowledge, which will have a positive impact on the performance of a nationally representative sector.modernization of the public administration, decentralization, professionalism, social responsibility

Performance in public administration: Doing outside the box under the rule of procedures

Under the economic and technological progress, innovation represents a vector of national development through excellence, competition and accountability. Moreover, new information, knowledge, and regulation are bringing valuable advantages, thus contributing through its results to the general performance level in both organizations and society. Innovation is becoming therefore increasingly important for achieving the desired levels of flexibility, durability, performance and strength. The present paper aims to present new ideas regarding the role of innovation in society and organizations, as well as how to harmonize innovative processes with rules and procedures which already exist in organizations. Also, the mechanisms in which innovation can boost performance are presented. Last but not least, there is a strong link between innovation and organizational risk, which is presented here. The conclusions reached are oriented towards explaining the place of innovation within organizations as well as in society

Governance process improvement and development by audit consolitation

The necessity of governance process improvement for reaching strategic objectives represents a condition in the given macroeconomic context for society’s development reforms continuation. Starting from the legal framework ruling audit activities and from the role of specialized structures within the Ministry of Finance whose purpose is “the carrying out of audit missions of national interest with multi-sectorial implications”, one can easily observe the permanent preoccupation for increasing and improving the quality of audit activities, fact which is also demonstrated and enforced by literature. The paper analyses using a holistic approach the audit system and its importance for the management accountability in organizations, especially of public ones. The analysis supports administration process optimization and contributes to the consolidation of (internal) audit activities within organizations. The used research method is participative observation. This qualitative approach has a major role, by allowing the description and analysis of (internal) audit activities and the consolidation of its importance in the sustainable development of both the economy as well as the public administration by continuous improvement of governance processes. The results of the research will generate a set of conclusions about the importance of audit activities for the governance processes. Also, some propositions will be made, which help public audit fulfil the requirements of the Public Finance Ministry, and improve the governance and management of public entities

Medium-term budgetary framework in the EU Member States: study case

The current economic crisis has called for huge fiscal efforts to avoid a deflationary spiral. In the context of the crisis, the national fiscal frameworks may play an important role in sustaining budgetary retrenchment. Therefore, the need for a fiscal consolidation, meaning a well-designed fiscal and budgetary policy is a challenge for all EU Member States. Moreover, the importance of strong and resilient fiscal frameworks has been emphasised by the October 2009 Council conclusions on the fiscal exit strategy. On this premise, the paper discusses what elements and considerations should be taken into account more carefully in designing resilient fiscal frameworks so as to support optimal policy-making and to promote the respect of the Stability and Growth Pact provisions. The unit analysis consists on several EU Member States, affected by economic crisis. Taking into consideration the aim of the paper, the research methodology is based on a case study as research strategy, and uses the triangulation method to obtain confirmation of findings through convergence of different perspective. Regarding the qualitative research, the authors use theoretical framework, legal analyses, systematic and analytical collecting data from official written sources, and macroeconomic indicators for quantitative aspects

The Challenges of the Administrative Process in a Financial Crisis and their Effectiveness

When we think back to the financial crisis which has been over for a few years now, we can only see the negative aspects. However, the positive aspects are incontestable. One of these aspects is represented by the efforts of making the public administrative processes more efficient. Managers of public institutions were obligated, due to lack of funds, to concentrate on creating and/or developing various mechanisms in order to optimize the internal processes with the intention of assuring the development of their activities and obtaining their overall objective. By doing this, they gained the importance of organizational functions such as internal public audits, internal managerial control and governess. The intent of this paper is to present the efficient process which took place in public administration sector of Romania during the financial crisis and immediately after. In order to better understand this procedure, a comparative analysis between the process implemented in Romania and the ones applied by the European Union will be discussed. The conclusions which will be formulated due to this study can be applied both theoretically as well as practically

The Challenges of the Administrative Process in a Financial Crisis and their Effectiveness

When we think back to the financial crisis which has been over for a few years now, we can only see the negative aspects. However, the positive aspects are incontestable. One of these aspects is represented by the efforts of making the public administrative processes more efficient. Managers of public institutions were obligated, due to lack of funds, to concentrate on creating and/or developing various mechanisms in order to optimize the internal processes with the intention of assuring the development of their activities and obtaining their overall objective. By doing this, they gained the importance of organizational functions such as internal public audits, internal managerial control and governess. The intent of this paper is to present the efficient process which took place in public administration sector of Romania during the financial crisis and immediately after. In order to better understand this procedure, a comparative analysis between the process implemented in Romania and the ones applied by the European Union will be discussed. The conclusions which will be formulated due to this study can be applied both theoretically as well as practically

Does bilateral political relations affect foreign direct investment?

This article employs the bootstrap Granger full-sample and subsample rolling window estimation to explore the time-varying property between bilateral political relations and foreign direct investment based on Sino-Japanese relations. The result identifies a one-way causal nexus running from bilateral political relations to foreign direct investment. Bilateral political relations have both positive and negative influences on foreign direct investment inflows in different sub-stages, but merely negative impacts on outflows. However, the reverse causality has not been proven, which is inconsistent with the model of Polachek et al. that the increased foreign direct investment is conducive to improving bilateral political relations. We also divide the BPR into two dimensions: leader’s visits and diplomatic conflicts to examine the role of specific political actions. Leader’s visits can significantly increase FDI inflows and outflows, but diplomatic conflicts have less impact on FDI. China and Japan should increase dialogue to ensure bilateral relations’ stability and seek common ground in economic interests, ultimately providing investors with a favorable political environment

Do house prices squeeze marriages in China?

This study reviews the threshold effect of house prices (HPs) on marriage (MR) in China by utilizing a panel threshold regression. The findings indicate that HPs have a positive impact on MR when the price is below the threshold value. Homeownership is an extremely important factor in MR in China, and MR without housing is considered incomplete. However, HPs have a negative effect on MR when the price is higher than the threshold value. Unemployment and female education have a negative effect on MR, while GDP per capita has a positive effect. These results are supported by the duration model, which shows that as HPs increase, the rate of MR decreases. The study makes a contribution on the asymmetric impact of high HPs on MR in China in the two regimes. The paper offers insight into the economic outlook on HPs and MR driven by societal and institutional changes, such as privatization and state ownership of enterprises, that have changed marriage behavior. Increasing HPs slow MR and may have a more serious impact on China than on other countries. The government should balance housing supply and demand by enhancing antimonopoly supervision in the private market. The government should establish policy measures to meet housing demand and create incentives to wed, which can relieve competition in marriage markets. Diversified investment, in turn, can control HPs

Budgeting mechanisms in public administration - meeting today's and tomorrow's development challenges

Abstract. The efficiency of the rational allocation process of public resources represent

Improving public sector performance by strenghtening the relationship between audit and accounting

If twenty years ago the financial activities of any Romanian enterprise were the sole responsibility of the accountant, nowadays the relationships of the economical entities within theirselves and with their environment are too complex to be handled just by accounting departments. Around accounting there have appeared a significant number of activities like Controlling and Auditing which are meant to link Accounting with the strategic management. In this regard the paper approaches the relationship between internal public audit and accounting which improves decisions making process in public sector. The research methodology aims to study these relationships and determine how they can work to the benefit of increasing public sector performance. The conclusions of the research shape aspects of accounting and auditing improvement as main strategic components for insuring performance in the public sector