Public Budgeting in Search for an Identity

The design of performance budgeting processes and managerial accountability relationships

Suresh Cuganesan

ABSTRACT Performance budgeting (PB) can play an important role in managerial accountability. Prior research focuses on the operation of PB as an information production device and concludes that its effects are shaped by context. Through a case study of reforms to government PB processes, the study extends understandings of how PB processes affect managerial accountability by showing how the design of PB shapes important elements of managerial accountability relationships that extend beyond information provision. A second contribution is in revealing how accountability arrangements come about through ‘micro-level’ interactions, comprising ...