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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Peter Eckersley, Professor Laurence Ferry
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This article highlights how recent reforms to the auditing and assessment of local public services in England suggest there will be a shift from panoptical to ‘synoptical’ monitoring approaches. This is because the UK Government has abolished its centralised monitoring regime and instead required local authorities to publish a range of financial and performance datasets online, ostensibly so that citizens can hold organisations to account directly. However, the complexity and raw nature of these data, along with the sidelining of professional auditors, will result in most citizens being either unable or unwilling to undertake this task. As such, the proposed ‘synoptical’ approach will not materialise. Indeed, other legislative changes will mean that outsourcing firms effectively become the new, unaccountable observers of local public sector bodies within an enduring panoptical system. In many cases these companies will then assume responsibility for delivering the same services that they have assessed.
Author(s): Eckersley P, Ferry L, Zakaria Z
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Critical Perspectives on Accounting
Year: 2014
Volume: 25
Issue: 6
Pages: 529-538
Print publication date: 01/09/2014
Online publication date: 21/04/2013
Acceptance date: 06/03/2013
Date deposited: 10/12/2014
ISSN (print): 1045-2354
ISSN (electronic): 1095-9955
Publisher: Academic Press
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2013.03.003
DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2013.03.003
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