Contemporary Issue Associated with Employment and Leadership in Sccounting and Finance - Essay Example

? Identifies a contemporary issue associated with employment and/or leadership in accounting and finance. The issue must be linked to one of the corethemes: a. International Accounting & Finance b. Professional Practice (A&F) c. Public Service Finance. Executive summary The paper presents a study of the leadership role that is seen in government bodies in matter of finance and accounting. This has been studied in the purview the public service finances and the components under it. The components chosen were financial crisis, public budgeting and financial management. The overall aim of the paper is to project the leadership or intervening roles of the government in dealing with the financial matters. There were key findings from the real estate boom in UK and USA which showed how the government responded in the worse situations. The key conclusions stated that the government has many intervening roles where the features of privatizations cannot help. These were related with the leadership roles. Recommendations suggested can be that the government has certain fallacies in dealing with matters like Exponential fiscal policy which seems to be in contradiction with the established theories. It also needs to be a little more flexible in dealing with the new financial forms. Table of contents 1. Executive summary................................................................................................1 2. Introduction. ..........................................................................................................3 3. Accounting and financial crisis observed in the public sector.........................5 a. Privatization of finances in the public sector.......................................6 4. Government intervention.......................................................................................8 5. Governmental control over budgeting.................................................................9. 6. Government interventions in real estate boom in UK.........................................10 7. Government interventions in fiscal policies.........................................................11 8. Conclusion...............................................................................................................12 Introduction The accounting and finance department has seen many downturns which were in different aspects. This is particularly true for the banking industry and the role of the government as the mitigating body is inevitable here. "Market failure" is found to occur when the private market sector is not able to allocate goods and the services efficiently. The existence of any kind of market failure provides the rationale for a collective or a governmental provision for the goods and services. Factors like externalities in public goods, or informational advantages, having strong economies of scale as well as the network effects can lead to market failures. The term financial crisis can be introduced here. Financial crisis can be applied broadly in many situations wherein a financial institution or an asset suddenly seems to lose a greater part of their financial value (Mishkin, 2001, p.12). Financial crises can directly lead to a loss in the paper wealth of the asset. Public finance is known to be the study of the income levels and expenditure of the government (Ghimire, n.d). The entire purview observed in public finance has been considered to be made of three features. These are the governmental effects observed in the efficient allocation of the resources, equal distribution of the income, and lastly macroeconomic form of stabilization. The right role of the government can provide a good starting point for conducting the analysis in public finance. Financial planning or budgeting lays the foundation for the efficiency of any business plan. Without having clear defined roles and financial objectives and plans, the business idea undertaken would be like driving a car but having the rear window. A well prepared plan in budgeting will prove to be helpful all throughout the fiscal year. The government can again contribute while forming the financial budgeting of the company. Public Budgeting is an aspect in public administration as well as a discipline that is in the course of academic study thereafter. Public budgets and the expenditures are the ways by which the public policies get translated into a tangible and achievable developmental action. Government decisions that include features about how to allocate or to spend the financial resources can make a direct effect on the good will of the citizens. As such, any form of misallocation, any wrong prioritization, an abuse and any mismanagement of the public funds can pose to be a huge challenge countering the efficiency and the effectiveness of the development interventions along with poverty reduction. Active participation of the citizens and the civil society involvement seen in the processes of public budgeting or financial management are necessary in order to promote transparency and accountability in respect to the public finances, making adequate safeguards against any sort of corruption as well as ensuring that the public fund gets allocated equally so as to address adequately the interests and the needs of the poor and the marginalized sections (Public Budgets and Expenditures, n.d, p.1). These shows that the government needs to play an active role in public budgeting decisions. Another area where the government can play a contributing role is in fiscal management. One of the major functions of the Government is to help in providing economic as well as financial management. Governments thus need to possess an adequate and a sound fiscal management system or the treasury system that would help them in tracking its cash inflows and the cash outflows so as to facilitate a better planning along with the utilization of its available funds. Another reason for the Government to build a strong financial management system is to cope with the increasing demands asking for greater transparency as well as accountability with the issues of the management that might be related with the finances of the general public (Integrated Government Fiscal Management System, 2000). From the above statements what becomes evident is that government plays a key role in handling and managing different public service finances. It is a key body that is consulted before framing any policy or decision as they are held responsible and accountable while dealing with the public finances. Collecting sufficient funds from an economy in an appropriate way along with its allocation and the usage of these funds efficiently and effectively makes a good financial management. And this can be achieved when the government has the authority to intervene and lead in such matters. The government needs to maintain a strong leadership role and efficient administrative capabilities. Thus for the research paper the topic stands as: The government undertakes a leadership role in dealing with matters of Public Service Finance such as financial crisis, public budgeting and fiscal management. Accounting and financial crisis observed in the public sector Practices leading to financial crisis The financial and the accounting management practices in the public sector are very different in all aspects (Graham, 2008, p.12) from the one that are practiced in the private sector. It would be risky to equalize or to generalize it with that observed in the private sector as this would lead to an individualization of the public money. Also the financial crisis that occurs in all public sectors has been the result of this equalization or generalization of the public finance that ultimately points towards its individualization. The equalization of the public finance with the private finance had led to the adoption of the concept of Galloping Horse of Budget Apocalypse, the usage of Categorical Funding as well as the individualization of the public finance. This could lead to massive wastage, corruption charges, and fraudulent practices in public sector along with the theft of the public money. These negative factors can create massive financial crisis as in these public sectors (CAROLINE, p.1, 2010). Government intervention It is commonly accepted that in order to maximize the social welfare, several forms of public intervention becomes necessary in situations where the market might fail (Piesse, n.d, p.5). As privatization has been aimed at lessening the function or role of the state, and simultaneously at the same rate, expanding the function of these private sectors, it would be beneficial to understand the different reasons as to why the government had considered these functions which are done by them and that later becomes the targets for privatization. Firstly, governments are mostly expected to present the required regulatory, legal frameworks and the security environment for these private sectors in order to undertake the functions. Staunch neo-liberals generally presume it as the only form of major function which needs to be conducted by the state (Privatization - The Role of the State, 2012). Crucial among the functions is generally the need for providing guaranteed property rights, the free removal of the property, and the appropriation of the outcomes that are generated from its usage, along with the facilitation and the protection of the different forms of contractual obligations. The second function is related with the provisions for pure public goods or services in the form of the services that are related with security and defense, the basic health, educational facilities, and the facility for proper sanitation or water. The third function is related with the provision for goods as well as services in areas such as the lower levels in development, different types of market failures, missing the markets or the value chains, the small size observed in the local markets, or any excessive costs in production (Privatization - The Role Of The State, 2012). The fourth function was assumed because of the result from the strategic considerations in the form of national security, the wish to be totally self-reliant, the requirement to form infant industries, along with the desire of some governments to make their influence on the course of their growth or development over time by gaining command over the key industries or the economic activities, especially in the initial levels of development. Apart from these factors, rapid economic transformation together with its development which has been generally the rationale behind nationalization or governmental ownership was also considered. Finally, the equity and the different welfare considerations, or the wish on the parts of the government to avoid a monopolistic form of private sector following its privatization had led some governmental institutions to take up the production and related activities of certain goods or the provision of certain forms of services (Privatization - The Role Of The State, 2012). Local governments generally find themselves as to be the only buyer for a particular type of service. As such, they need to give detailed attention to their function in the market places. When it comes to communicating with the local marketplaces, the government can play several important roles in the form of acting as the regulator, or the provider or the contract manager. Sometimes governments can even form a market if they feel the need to deliver any particular type of service. In such cases, the government needs to ensure that competition, the acceptable costs, the adequate levels of service quality, and the stability in the service provision are maintained (Warner & Hefetz, n.d, p.2). This explains the different leadership aspects that the government can take while intervening in privatizations. Financial crisis in USA As seen in USA, the public finances in the country are in a state of considerable ruin (Maich, 2005). It was also predicted that the financial crisis was getting worse at a very fast rate. And if a major decision was not taken immediately for solving the country's sinking budget problems, the entire world would be facing an economic downturn that was never experienced or seen before (Maich, 2005). The numbers were staggering at a US$43-trillion mark up in the public finance department of America which was getting worse every single day as in 2005. The gravity of the problem can be understood from the fact that in February 2005, the U.S. national debt had stood at a US$7.7 trillion. And the following year, i.e. in 2006 the country was projected with another record deficit consisting of US$427 billion thus increasing its amount of debt by almost US$1.2 billion per day (Maich, 2005). The root cause behind this enormous debt level was poor and faulty assumptions that were taken by the American government as well as the result of faulty bookkeeping of the financial records (Maich, 2005). Different types of government intervention Debt financing by the government Debt financing is one of the method in which government plays a significant role. The policy implies the sale of securities which promises in paying interest over a given number of years and also returning the principal amount at the end of the stipulated time period. The Government sells the securities of various types and maturities as for example in USA savings bonds, treasury bills and competes with various private securities, such as “commercial-bank savings deposits, savings and loan shares, bank acceptances, and corporate bonds” (Hyman, 2007, p.501). In the countries with massive decentralization has directed towards increasing the share of public investments. Large scale increase in urbanization requires large investments in absorbing the poor population. The notion of deficit financing by the government is infused in tackling the problems of market failure in times of economic crisis. The government’s policies include Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG), the Enterprise Capital Funds programs and tax based venture capital schemes (SME Assistance to external finance, 2012, p.26). Although the policy of debt financing has been used in United States of America in times of financial crisis, there has been controversy associated with the appropriateness of debt finance by various levels of government within the country. One of the criticisms of debt financing is that of heavy burden on the future generation (Hyman, 2007, p.501). Bailouts as significant intervention in the US crisis The economic crisis which heralded in the year 2007 and took a solid shape in 2008-09 in USA can be regarded as a direct consequence of risky investments, investors taking greater risks against the hope of getting mammoth returns. It has been seen that a large number of reputed banks in the country bankrupted and the government attached its role significantly with credit lending initiatives to the banks. The banks work as agents in the demand side and it extends credit to the customers. In times when the businesses lack in receiving proper finance they face constraints in various expenditures leading to the economic development. Consumers either losing job or not getting credit are not been able to spend on various goods and services and there generates a cyclical problem in the economy adversely affecting the business and consumer’s perspectives as well. One of the most prominent discussions related to financial crisis is that of the subprime mortgage crisis. In the early phase of the century the real estate market increased at a rapid pace with the increase in prices of the houses. A large number of lenders found a large diverse ways to give mortgages even to the buyers who did not qualify for loan. The housing market rose to a great extent with extensive rise in house prices. The housing market collapsed with the rise in prices and along with that interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) augmented with the weakening of the economy. As a result, the borrowers were not able to afford loans provided and they exceeded the value of homes. There were occurrence of foreclosures and as a consequence a large number of hedge funds which were specialized failed in the market. There was also degeneration in the business sector with the collapse of construction, finance and the real estate sector (An Overview of Recent Bank Bailouts in the U.S., 2012). Now coming to the dimensions of government interventions, there has been a outsized efforts. In the month of September, 2008, the federal government extended a funding of $ 85 billion to the largest insurance company in the world i.e. American International Group (AIG). In the same month, the government acquired financial institutions like Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac into the receivership for stabilizing the financial positions of these organizations. The failure of these financial institutions along with decrease in consumer spending led the US government to implement the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in October, 2008 through legislation. The legislation was targeted at the purchase of various mortgage backed securities. A bailout program occurs when a government or business entity incorporates money within the struggling entity for prevention of collapse. Among the stimulus package of the US government some names are noteworthy. As for instance, American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), a stimulus package dedicated for developing infrastructure, job creation and preservation, energy efficiency, science, and social programs was made. Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA), a program by the US treasury department for restoring liquidity and stability in the country’s economic system. The program bailed out financial industry through the purchase of toxic assets along with provision of tax relief and incentives for the purpose of conservation of energy. However criticisms arose questioning the efficacy as well as execution of the bailouts in 2009 with some of the head honchos believing that intervention of the government is not a solution and that it directed towards poor decision making among the companies and mortgage borrowers. But despite of these criticisms, the packages and programs incorporated by the government were really beneficial in bringing confidence in the US markets (An Overview of Recent Bank Bailouts in the U.S., 2012). Privatization of finances in the public sector Privatization is a concept that can evoke sharp political counter actions. Public and the private bodies are paired in order to describe several related oppositions that can arise in our minds. Privation literally means the transfer of assets from the public sector to the private sector (Eaton, 2006, p. 408). In the context of the paper, these assets will be in the form finances that would be converted from the public sector to the private sector. Privatization has now become a common way to find the solution for the organizational problems faced by the financial or government institutions by reducing the control of the state along with simultaneously encouraging the increase in the growth of these private sector enterprises. However, privatization can take several forms. It is thus essential to understand that any form of privatization is a total political process and it has many important economic as well as social indications which not only impact the operations and achievements of the venture, but also the social welfare and its constancy (Piesse, n.d, p.3). These social impacts need to be considered for any impact assessment, especially with those related with employment, the complete forms of social safety measures, forms of social privatization which results from any extension in the share ownership to the small time investors and its employees along with the role of the public utilities and the services conducted by them in the economic and the social developmental frames. It is thus important that these frameworks in order to evaluate the policy developments, including all aspects of privatization get clearly established well in advance (Piesse, n.d, p.3). The major objective behind privatization is to improve the economic efficiency, the level of competitiveness together with the sustainability of the entire private sector in an economy. The World Development Report of 1991 had considered the relation between the government and the markets further stressing on the fact that these two institutions must not be considered as a substitute for each other (Piesse, n.d, p.4). The difference in having a governmental institutions and a private company perform a function is significant. Privatization involves the moving of the components for the provision of the goods and services out of any governmental sector and putting it in the private sector. Thus, these two sectors cannot be classified as identical. As was noted by the National Academy of Public Administration, “In point of fact, there are some fundamental differences between the [governmental and private sectors] .... Most basic, perhaps, is the [government’s] distinctive claim to exercise sovereignty, to enact and enforce binding laws, and to act on behalf of the nation or the community in certain constitutionally prescribed ways” (Privatization and the Federal Government: An Introduction, 2006, p.20). Adam Smith had stated that each individual by pursuing their own self interest would eventually be serving the society as a whole by fulfilling a common goal (Graafland, 2007, p.87). The implications of the assumptions are that the following conditions should exist: (1) there should be enough markets, and (2) all the consumers and the producers should behave competitively. Therefore, if the markets are complete in their form, so that there is no scope for any transactions to be missed, and if the number of buyers is large as well as the sellers such that nobody of them would have the power to influence prices, the market outcome would be then considered to be efficient (Piesse, n.d, p.4). Interventions by the government can also be validated by situations where the resources do not get fully employed or a condition where the gross market outcome might be unacceptable on the distributional grounds. Governmental control over budgeting Budget is a form of government’s plan for using the public resources to complete the citizens’ needs. Budget Transparency (BT) means that the ordinary citizens and the civil society organizations (CSOs) will have the benefit to access information regarding how these public resources get allocated and are used. BT enables the citizens to assess if the government officials were good stewards for the public funds (Pekkonen, 2012). BT is considered as a fundamental precondition maintaining the accountability as well as the public participation for the governance processes. Lack of transparency or democratic control by the government over the budget processes can lead to chances for graft or corruption (Bhargava & Bolongaita, 2004, p.88). A non-transparent form of budget can never be properly analyzed nor can the implementation of the non-transparent budget effectively monitored. Transparency entitles the citizens to make contributions in the inputs of the budget process (Sacchetto, 2011, p.184) as well as a way to assess if the government had executed its development plans as per the budgetary allocations (Pekkonen, 2012). Although the funds of the government belongs to the general people in an economy, information even in small amounts regarding the government interventions while forming a public budget are made available to the people of most countries. This is in fact the most common form of problem that the makers of the public budget face. As a result, the most important priority for these groups is to advocate for a greater access to the budgetary information and any other form of government data that would be necessary for understanding the implications of the budget figures. This will be possible only if the government maintain proper administrative and leadership control over the budgetary decisions. Government interventions in real estate boom in UK Fiscal management is also a component under public finances and government plays a crucial role in it. There are many dimensions that can make up the entire gamut of the fiscal management system and one such area is the real estate industry. In UK the housing sector is an important contributing factor. As such we can explain the real estate bubble scenario in the country. The real estate industry was at its peak in UK during the 1950s. Since the last four decades, the housing market in Britain had been faced with persistent price instability (Stephens, 2011, p.6). By the middle of 1960 the entire property market in UK was hit by inflation as well as excess supply of the real estate properties. There were many relaxations introduced in the banking rules. There was major crash in the property market because of insufficient control over the government lending policies. The monetary policy was the major factor behind the housing boom that had begun in UK. The increase in the loans of the housing sector had resulted in the increasing inflation. The condition had worsened during 1972 due to the high level of inflation in the economy. In the UK, financial instability had started to enter the mortgage lending market as its interest rates were increasing in a response towards the inflationary consequences (Baddeley, 2005, p.6). Highlight on economic models Towards the end of 1972, the Government undertook several measures to control the interest rates of the banks. The British real estate bubble had faced inflation till the end of the 1980’s and had suffered a severe downfall towards the beginning in 1981 that continued for the entire decade during the 1990’s. There were many institutional changes introduced in the housing sector that had also influenced most of the housing decisions of the buyers (Baddeley, 2005, p.6). As per the perfect housing market model, housing assets are considered in the form of consumption and investment assets (Baddeley, 2005, p.4) But if there is a fall in the market rates of the housing assets, it loses its value as an investment asset. The perfect housing model has been constructed on the Modigliani Miler assumption which stated that the value of an asset was not affected by any financing decision. The MM model can be used for proper allocation of finances in the organization. This was referred to as the MM assumption of financing neutrality (Baddeley, 2005, p.5). This cannot be said for the real scenario as disruptions occurring in political issues and institutional changes can lead to changes. This was characterized by the Thatcher era in Britain that introduced several reforms in the form of financial deregulation and fiscal changes. Stimulus mechanism for new purchases In the recent years around 2008-2009, in UK for neutralizing the housing bubble, the government introduced a temporary exclusion on stamp duty for property purchase valued up to an amount € 196, 422. This was done for supporting demand in the market (Lam, 2011, p.9). Coping strategies for consumers One of the important government functions within the housing market is that of the provision of coping strategies for the borrowers who face constraints in the payment related issues. The interventions included various forms like mortgage modifications, deferred interest schemes and so on. In UK, provisions were made by the government where certain types of borrowers at the risk of forthcoming possession through default were able to become social tenants at the same time remained within their own privately owned residence (Lam, 2011, p.10). Cut in rates The funding measures of government also helps in relaxing the problems of housing markets one of which is rate cut measures. The Bank of England exercised cutting rates in an aggressive manner. By the month of March, 2009, the bank rate in UK was 0.5 percent. At the end of 2009, there were less than 200,000 mortgages were in arrears which represented around 2.5 percent of the total mortgage balance. The government also applied credit guarantee schemes for helping to ease the disturbances within the housing market. A liquidity scheme was introduced in the month of January 2009. The Treasury department provided the banks and societies with amounts approximately around € 348 (Lam, 2011, p.11). Government interventions in fiscal policies The next section will discuss about the government interventions in fiscal policies. The fiscal policies are framed by the government to generate revenue levels (Nattrass, 2002, p.273). An important aspect of governmental intervention here is that the revenue that is raised through taxes are regulated by state and not left in the hands of the private bodies. This is done as there are certain functions that cannot be performed by the private institutions effectively and that the demand levels can be increased by the state by taking the fiscal policies at exponential levels (Nattrass, et al., 2002, p.273). Keynesian economics suggests that increasing government spending and decreasing tax rates are the best ways to stimulate aggregate demand (Goodwin, et al., 2008, p.16). There are some contradictions in the role of the government in fiscal stimulus. The argument is based mostly on the concept of crowding out. During crowding out which is seen in the exponential fiscal policy, the interest rates increases. This leads the level of private spending to go down (Gwartney, et al., p.246). This would help to control the fiscal deficit if any. Conclusion The above facts and discussions presents a picture that emphasizes on the administrative control of the government over different public service finances such as financial crisis, budgeting and fiscal management. Government has many intervening roles that can contribute in privatization policies. The accounting policies practiced in the public and the private bodies are not the same and hence the leadership role of the government also differs here. Transparency becomes an important aspect here especially in the public budgeting issues where the government needs to maintain a leadership role so as to ascertain a fair system. The real estate boom in UK has shown that when the industry was going down on being hit by interest rises, the government has undertaken several forms of reforms to control it. From the above points we can understand that in any financial system, every form of decision cannot be left in the hands of privatization. Just as there are many positive aspects here, it also suffers from certain deficiencies that can be solved only by government intervention. There are also instances where the government took a leadership role to bring down the interest rates seen during the times of the hosing bubble in UK. The housing bubble was lucrative initially but had suffered a huge loss due to inflation and interest rise. Public budgeting is an important component in any governmental policy and it needs to take strong measures to maintain a clean and transparent system, it remains in the hands of the government to assure that no figures are recorded wrongly in the bookkeeping departments. False records can harm the financial decisions in a huge way and this can impact at the global levels too. This was observed in the financial system of USA as today. The country has run into millions of debts owing to its poor financial policies and short sightedness of the USA government. This was also related with the housing policies in USA. In short, the governmental policies need to take a leadership role when required. These become particularly important when the public financial institutions wish to convert themselves into private financial entities. The leadership and administrative role needs to be as per the situation in the public service finance. As the name suggest, public service finance aims to deal with the public money. The government needs to ensure that the right and genuine decisions are taken while using the funds collected from the public. There must be proper policies that would enable the government to make its movements accountable before the public eye. There are many instances where fraudulent and corrupt behavior was seen in these aspects when the public inquired about its resources. Here the government needs to adopt the stringent measures or leadership roles so as to prevent such occurrences. A fair financial accounting management system can be generated only from proper leadership and management. References 1. An Overview of Recent Bank Bailouts in the U.S., (2012), retrieved from: (accessed on December 19, 2012) 2. Baddeley, M. (2005), HOUSING BUBBLES, HERDS AND FRENZIES: EVIDENCE FROMBRITISH HOUSING MARKETS, retrieved from: (accessed on October 19, 2012) 3. Bhargava, V. K. & Bolongaita, E., P. (2004). Asia: Case Studies and a Framework for Action.  World Bank 4. COVELL, C. (2010), The Role of Government in Fighting Financial Crisis Public Budgeting and Fiscal Management It’s Public Money, Isn’t It?, retrieved from: (accessed on October 19, 2012) 5. Eaton, D. J. (2008). The End of Sovereignty?: A Transatlantic Perspective. 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