Question 1
As a Public Administrator – for instance a manager of a specific department – what sorts of information do you think you would need from Financial Reporting? Answer should be minimum in 200 word with one reference
As a manager and public administrator of a specific department, the information for financial reporting may help in planning, and control decisions. This information from the financial reporting can be used in determining the company’s financial health and the required resources which are needed to attain certain organizational targets. The financial statements of the company or other financial data give the information which is important for a public administrator to show how much a business is earning or not earning.
Through financial reporting, administrators of a department can gain information about how much more funds they would need to operate the department. They can also know how far they are from their financial goals and what are the main factors limiting their financial performance. The information regarding the budget constraints, or budget deficits, or regarding the reasons a department would need more budget can be taken from financial reporting.
The financial information gathered from the financial reports can be utilized by the public administrators in order to show the historical financial health of the department or company to the debt holders, vendors, bond rating analysts, or other major stakeholders. The various strategies implemented by the department managers are often depicted in the financial reports. This information can be used by the public administrators to show the adopted strategies and their results translated into financial terms (Waymire, Sohl, & Howard, 2015).
Question 2
Based on the article on whistle-blowing, examine the role that whistle-blowing can play for high-level management. What sorts of protections can be put in place to ensure that lower-level employees have the right to raise concerns despite protests of mid-level superiors like in the Arlington Cemetery case? Answer should be minimum in 200 word with one reference
Whistleblowers are those individuals who get the attention of the concerned authorities or stakeholders to the possible wrongdoings within an organization. The morality of the whistleblower is discussed as too much controversy. The complex act involving the several obligations, understanding of the related loyalty, and duty of the individual is often found in conflict with each other. These individuals, which are portrayed as heroes for uncovering the “truth” about the corruption or wrongdoing within an organization is not often portrayed as same by the other party. The decision of uncovering the truth often involves the evaluation of competing for moral claims. The resulting decision always involves honoring of one set of moral values at the expense of the other set of moral values. As per Bonheoffer’s sense, truth-telling or the whistle-blowing is the bearing of the responsibility for the consequences of the truth-telling. For the higher management, the whistleblowers can be of true use (Paeth, 2013).
The higher management can utilize them as assets against wrongdoing and corruption with their organization. For this purpose, the higher management should work to put in the mechanisms to enforce protection for the whistleblowers. It has been found that the whistleblowers are evidently found feeling harassed, losing their jobs, and their salaries reduced. Firstly, the employees must be aware of the possible steps needed if any communication regarding ethical manner is required. Secondly, the employees should be well aware that their concerns will be taken seriously. Thirdly, and most importantly, the employees should feel safe communicating these concerns, and should not suffer fear of losing their job as a consequence like it was reported in the Arlington cemetery case (Barnett, 1992).
Question 3
1-Provide an analysis of how the town budget will be impacted by the town’s financial crisis.
The major employer in Hadleyville; Wilson Performance Automobile Plant closed, causing the revenue decline in the town drastically. This affected drastically making the matters worse between the financial crisis impacting the whole country. Due to the lack of jobs, many residents of the town were forced to relocate and leave the town. The remaining residents are in bad condition, trapped in mortgages, which they cannot bear. It is thus impertinent to make immediate changes to the financial plans of the town. This needs in-depth analysis of the fiscal budget of Hadleyville and proposing of recommendations for economic recovery.
The financial crisis is going to have a major effect on the budget of Hadleyville. The overall revenue of the town over the seven-year periods would decline by 39% moving from $59,440,850 (2007) to $36,488,470 (2013). The decline in the revenue is projected to decrease on an average by $1,125,690 for the next three years. Out of the seventeen funding sources of the town, thirteen of the sources are expected to get affected and decline as a result of the financial crisis. The revenue from the sales tax is going to also decline to $15,713,360. This, in fact, is going to be a drastic effect on the funding as the sale tax source accounted for the 35% of the revenue of the state and the local government (Sprague, 2010).
2-What are your initial thoughts on ways to minimize the impact of the financial crisis to critical town services?
After this much decline in the budget of a town or city, the budget should be reorganized in order to combat the budget deficit. The most important tool for combating with the budget deficit is to attract new employers and businesses to invest in the town; however, it is also the most difficult one as well. The attraction can be in the form of tax exemptions, and other incentives. This can create new jobs, and subsequently, create new sourcing funds for the town. Furthermore, new tax credits can be established which can help lower the cost of conducting business (OECD.Org, 2007).
For reducing the impact of the financial crisis on the budget of the town, it is needed that the budget is to be decreased by 13% in order to be operable. For decreasing the expenditures, one step can be to freeze salary incentives, and do not offer increment in salaries for the coming three years. This can substantially increase the revenue. Furthermore, the employee overtime should be eliminated, and a 35 hour work week should be adopted as compared to 40 hours a week. As compared to the full-time employees, more part-time employees could be employed, which can contribute to a huge saving. Looking for more of the Federal grant is not an option but a necessity. Merging of purchasing with other local governments and outsourcing of the service for lower costs can also aid. With outsourcing, the benefits would not be needed to be paid. Through the implementation of such strategies, the effect of the financial crisis can be dissolved to some extent (Waymire, Sohl, & Howard, 2015).
References
Barnett, T. (1992). Why Your Company Should Have A Whistleblowing Policy. Sam Advanced Management Journal, 1(1), 37-42.
OECD.Org. (2007, June 1). Tax Incentives for Investment – A Global Perspective: Retrieved Dec 23, 2017, from http://www.oecd.org/mena/competitiveness/38758855.pdf
Paeth, S. R. (2013). The Responsibility to Lie and the Obligation to Report. Journal of Business Ethics, 2013(112), 559-566.
Sprague, J. (2010, Oct 5). Interdepartmental Memorandum. Hadleyville Department Of Finance . Wisconsin, USA.
Waymire, T. R., Sohl, S. N., & Howard, B. (2015). Public Administrators’ Understanding of External Financial Reporting: It Begins With Curriculum. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 21(2), 281-294.
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