An Exploratory Study of Annuality in the Uk Public Sector: Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose?

Institutional Hybridity in Public Sector Reform: Replacement, Blending, or Layering of Administrative Paradigms

“…First, with regard to the accounting system, questions arose over whether the traditional cash-based system is still adequate or should be replaced by private sector-style accrual accounting (e.g., Connolly & Hyndman, 2006;Pina et al, 2009; for a corresponding discussion on cash versus accrual budgeting see e.g., Khan, 2013). Second, flexibilization in budgeting has included a move from line-item budgets with allocated spending categories towards more flexible lump sum budgets (Swain & Reed, 2010) and the abolition of annuality, thereby enabling the practice of granting the possibility to carry forward unspent budget resources (e.g., Hyndman, Jones, & Pendlebury, 2007). Third, the implementation of performance measurement systems (i.e., identifying outputs, outcomes, and corresponding costs of public service delivery) has become a prerequisite for performance budgeting and result-oriented steering (e.g., Robinson, 2007;Schick, 2007;Seiwald et al, 2013).…”

Budget Rules and Flexibility in the Public Sector: Towards a Taxonomy

“…However, the evidence that is available suggests that year‐end flexibility has had marginal impact on the influence of the ‘time’ rule. An illustrative example is the introduction of carry forward rules for unspent balances as part of the implementation of resource (accrual) accounting reforms in the United Kingdom central government (Hyndman et al., ). In this case, whilst Treasury and line departments came to an understanding on the operation of carryovers at the sectoral level, the new arrangements were not replicated for lower level budget holders within departments.…”

Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act 2 ‘the annual budget’

“…In their exploratory study of annuality in public budgeting, Hyndman et al (2006) found it to be a widespread phenomenon. 'Annuality' refers to the way in which Budget allocations have to be spent by the end of a financial year or be surrendered to a central authority or budgetholder.…”

“…It also sets the context for policy development through associated performance management arrangements such as the Public Service Agreements that were introduced by the Labour Government in 1997 (Rhodes, 2011). The annual Budget process deals with politics and resource allocations within the overall Spending Review framework, but at a more nuanced level (Hyndman et al 2006). These concepts of political theory have often been linked in accounting research to other research ideas and in particular neo-institutional theory.…”

“…Multi-year planning alongside annual Budgets has been theoretically considered (Wildavsky, 1964(Wildavsky, , 1975(Wildavsky, , 1988, proposed globally (Schick, 2009) and adopted in the UK since the mid1990s (Hyndman et al 2006) The Coalition's Spending Review, like its forerunners from the Labour Government, is considered to provide a stable framework within which Government can plan, construct and implement (in other words constrain) the annual Budget. However, it is the contention of this paper that the Spending Review is an external legitimation of stability that can be decoupled from the annual Budget.…”