Corporate Governance: What about the workers?

To stimulate debates about the creation of corporate governance mechanisms and processes which would help to secure an equitable distribution of income and wealth for workers. Methodology/Approach: The paper builds on a political economy of income and wealth inequalities. It argues that corporate governance mechanisms and processes are rooted in particular politics and histories. The state is a key actor. It provides a brief history of the UK corporate governance debates relating to income distribution, industrial democracy and disclosures. It provides social data about the extent of income inequalities. Findings: The paper shows that the UK lacks institutional structures and processes and mechanisms to enable workers to secure a higher share of the firm?s income. Research limitations/implications (if applicable): The study primarily focuses on some aspects of the corporate governance structures, practices and income/wealth inequalities in the UK. Its implications could also be relevant to market-oriented liberal states with ?consensus? or ?majoritarian? electoral systems. Practical implications (if applicable): To encourage debates, the paper puts forward a number of suggestions for changing electoral and corporate governance practices together with disclosures that could give visibility to income and wealth inequalities. Originality/value of paper: The paper links corporate governance debates to broader political choices. Article Type: A research article that uses a variety of government and institutional data sources to highlight shortcomings of corporate governance practices

All Offshore - The Sprat, The Mackerel, Accounting Firms and the State in Globalization

Globalization has created opportunities for major businesses to roam the world and shop for regulation conductive to their interests. Major auditing firms are no exception and have used offshore financial centres to dilute their liability. This chapter provides a case study to show that major firms used their political and financial resources to craft Limited Liability Partnership law in Jersey. This was done at a time when the UK government was reluctant to grant further liability concessions to auditors. The firms subsequently used the Jersey scenario to exert pressure upon the UK government and secure liability concessions

The Tax Avoidance Industry: Accountancy Firms on the Make

The focus of the paper is upon the financial sector and, more specifically the involvement of global accountancy firms in devising and selling tax avoidance schemes euphemistically marketed as `tax planning?. Commenting upon some of the ?entrepreneurial? activities of these firms, Perrow (2010) observes that ?they knew what they were doing was fraudulent? (ibid: 314) as he notes that Greenwood and Suddaby?s (2006) widely referenced study excludes consideration of how partners in these firms were complicit in embracing the `alternative logics pressed upon them by their large corporate clients? (ibid: 314). An example is so-called ?alternative logics? is the construction and promotion of elaborate tax avoidance schemes by big accounting firms (Sikka and Hampton, 2005) which, we show, has become so deeply normalized within the Big Firms as to cast doubt upon their `alternative? status

Enterprise Culture and Accountancy Firms: New Masters of The Universe

Purpose: The paper argues that enterprise culture is producing negative effects. Companies and major accountancy firms are increasingly willing to increase their profits through indulgence in price fixing, tax avoidance/evasion, bribery, corruption, money laundering and practices that show scant regard for social norms and even laws. Methodology/Approach: The paper locates business behaviour within the broader dynamics of capitalism to argue that hunger for higher profits at almost any cost is not constrained by rules, laws and even periodic regulatory action. Findings: The paper uses publicly available evidence to show that accountancy firms are engaged in anti-social behaviour. Evidence is provided to show that in pursuit of higher profits firms have operated cartels, engaged in tax avoidance/evasion, bribery, corruption and money laundering. Practical implications (if applicable): The paper seeks to bring the anti-social activities of accountancy firms under scrutiny and thus extend possibilities of research in social responsibility, ethics, accountability, claims of professionalism, social disorder and crime. Originality/value of paper: It is rare for accounting scholars to examine predatory practices of accounting firms. It shows that predatory practices affect a variety of arenas and stakeholders

Real-time image streaming over a low-bandwidth wireless camera network

In this paper we describe the recent development of a low-bandwidth wireless camera sensor network. We propose a simple, yet effective, network architecture which allows multiple cameras to be connected to the network and synchronize their communication schedules. Image compression of greater than 90% is performed at each node running on a local DSP coprocessor, resulting in nodes using 1/8th the energy compared to streaming uncompressed images. We briefly introduce the Fleck wireless node and the DSP/camera sensor, and then outline the network architecture and compression algorithm. The system is able to stream color QVGA images over the network to a base station at up to 2 frames per second. © 2007 IEEE

Using freedom of information laws to frustrate accountability: Two case studies of UK banking frauds

Accountability is considered to be central to the functioning of a democratic and informed society. A large volume of literature theorises accountability and explains how it should be and could be deepened. There is a general view that the availability of state held information can enhance possibilities of citizen participation and democratic governance, and check unethical and corrupt behaviour by state and corporate elites. The state held documents can arguably enable citizens to construct a richer account of corporate frauds, accounting/auditing scandals and regulatory failures and call policymakers to account. The neoliberal state has managed the tensions between the public demands for information and the tendency to protect elites from public scrutiny by regularising the flow of information via freedom of information laws. Such laws hold out the possibility of greater information, but also give state officials plenty of discretion to frustrate unwelcome requests. The issues are explored through two case studies relating to banking frauds in the UK. The cases highlight the dynamics of calling the state to account through the freedom of information laws and show that the state apparatus goes to considerable lengths to shield elites from public scrutiny

Bay of Bengal Monsoon Experiment (BOBMEX)- a component of the Indian Climate Research Programme (ICRP)

The Indian Climate Research Programme (ICRP) focuses on the study of climate variability and its impact on agriculture. To address the role of the Bay of Bengal in monsoon variability, a process study was organised during July-August 1999, deploying research ships, buoys, INSAT, coastal radar and conventional observational systems to collect information about the coupled ocean-atmosphere system over the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal. The paper gives the background of the ICRP and the organisation and implementation of the Bay of Bengal Monsoon Experiment (BOBMEX) in its field phase