Will AI powered technology ChaptGPT kill education as we know it? Killing education is probably not something that is likely to happen but disruption that we are witnessing recently will for sure disrupt education for good.

ChatGPT, power by AI technology, will disrupt education as we know it today and will reshape the approach used by educational institutions when it comes educational materials and the interactivity with students.

We are not focusing in this article on the positive use cases behing the ChatGPT, as there are for sure many of them.

Instead, the underlying risks for educational instiutions are numerous:

1. Content production
2. Plagiarism issue
3. Ethical issues

These three issues are probably at the core of current and future discussions on the risks behind using AI powered technology in education.

Content production

We tried ChatGPT to better understand what it can do but also to understand if there are some limitations.

We were blown away by the results it can produce – Personally, I have never seen something similar.

We have asked ChatGPT to produce a 500 words essay.

ChatGPT replied:

This looks pretty good as an initial outcome and at first sight, it would be quite difficult to understand if this was done by a machine or by a human.

Next thing we wanted to do is to ask ChatGPT to make the reply a bit more academic with a clearer introduction, discussion and conclusion sections.

Here is the result. Quite impressive.

Now, we have submitted the created essay to a well known plagiarism software – and only 2% of plagiarism detected!

There are many ethical questions that could be raised. Also, intellectual property topic or copyright issue could also be brought up. Ultimately, what could be the student’s involment and intelectual contribution in this approach? That is the right question.

We asked ChatGPT: Is is ethical to use the content that you have created?

This was the answer: As an AI language model, I am not able to hold intellectual property rights or have personal ethical views. As a language model, my primary function is to assist users in generating human-like text based on the prompts and information provided to me. I do not have the ability to own or claim ownership of the content that I generate, and it is up to the user to determine how to use the content.

It is important to consider the ethical implications of using any content, including text generated by a language model. If you plan to use the content for any purpose, it is always a good idea to ensure that you have the necessary permissions and that you are not infringing on any copyright or intellectual property rights. It is also important to ensure that the use of the content aligns with your own personal and professional ethical standards.

Currently, I see some important questions that will have to be addressed urgently by all educational institutions when it comes to finding the right approach.

Some are suggesting that the right direction is to make assignments more specific and context based so that AI chatbot cannot easily address them. Others are proposing to switch to a more project-based assignments where a simple question cannot be approach with a simple answer.

I believe that the right direction is to make the assignment more complex in terms of the context, assumptions and basic foundations, would require students to take a way more complex analytical approach that will result in delivering final assignment that cannot be tackled by an AI fuelled robot.

Plagiarism issue

Plagiarism issue is one of the trickiest aspects of student’s assignment. Not only, an educational institution does not want students to plagiarize but most importantly, they want them to contribute with their assignments or submissions to what the expected learning outcomes from the course are.

Ethical concerns

Another topic related to ethical challenges. How ethical it is to use someone else or something else to help student in writing the content. This question demands some further thoughts but generally speaking, it is not simple to avoid some unethical situations as we live in the big data world and no one (and I mean it), is really doing something from scratch. If you ask any programmer on the planet, how exactly they start a new programming project, each one of them will confirm that they do not do it from scratch but mostly rely on some open source foundations.

Conclusion

AI powered technologies are now part of our realities, probably much faster than what we could have ever imagined.

When one of the OpenAI/ChatGPT project stakeholders was asked three years ago how they think that the revenue will be generated from the OpenAI project, he replied that they will first build the technology and then ask the technology itself “Tell us now, how can we make some revenue from you”.

Recommendations

Here are some tips educators can try to implement to tackle some of the above issues:

• Try to pick up more complex and context-specific assignments
• Avoid assignments that are too generic or easily available or open (i.e. reference to a specific party, firm, stakeholder group, international organisation, or state government should be avoided)
• Assignments that have questions about topics, trends, issues, etc. that have been extensively discussed or analysed should be avoided
• Assignments should be more practical in nature and draw more heavily on the actual learnings provided in class (e.g., ask students to provide practical case based on the specific assignment analyzed in the classroom).
• AI is not perfect and can sometimes make up things – try to check for facts, events or analysis provided

The post ChatGPT in Education: Risks of the AI powered technology appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Corporate governance is a fundamental pillar for the sustainability of any State-Owned Enterprise. It identifies the processes, policies and procedures by which the organization is directed and controlled.

When corporate governance policies, processes and procedures are rigorously implemented, it ensures that a State-Owned Enterprise is properly managed thereby maintaining accountability and transparency which leads to sustainability. It is very essential for the survival of State-Owned Enterprise.

Good corporate governance in State-Owned Enterprises in Liberia will largely contribute to increased GDP and respective Enterprise value. When these structures are visible and evident in Liberia State-Owned Enterprise, it will be more certain that the organization will achieve the objectives and goals for which it was created.

Good corporate governance is an essential means to create an environment of market confidence and business integrity that supports capital market development and corporate access to equity capital for long term productive investments. The quality of a country鈥檚 corporate governance framework is of decisive importance for dynamics and competitiveness of a country business sector. OECD (2019), OECD corporate governance factbook, 2019.

(Simon.W.C.,2018) indicates that a number of countries have made substantial efforts to professionalize the government鈥檚 approach to owning and managing State-Owned Enterprises by instituting major reforms.

However, Liberia does not have a corporate governance code for State-Owned Enterprises. According to Duh. M, (2017) Corporate governance codes are a form of soft regulations or so-called soft laws which comprise of a set of voluntary best practices. These codes are established to address deficiencies in the corporate governance systems. As the primary function of corporate governance code is transparency, the availability of this code is very essential.

There still remains a great challenge with corporate governance in State-Owned Enterprises in Liberia. This is primarily due to the thin line drawn between government鈥檚 ownership and the State-Owned Enterprise as a separate entity or corporation.

Finally, Liberia鈥檚 commitment to transparency in doing business, political will to fight corruption and financial mal practices should be a fundamental ingredient for very strong corporate governance practice in State-Owned Enterprises.

The post Sustainable State-Owned Enterprise in Liberia; Is Good Corporate Governance a Pivotal Factor? appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Although there is systematic difference between countries in legal systems for corporate governance mechanism, most of them have recently reformed their mechanism to comply with the international corporate governance code and the Anti-Money laundering measures. Hong Kong as an international financial centre has not been left behind when it comes to matters of corporate governance. It has introduced several initiatives such as the Revised Companies Ordinance, Code on corporate governance and Anti-Money laundering Ordinance since the last ten decades among others to help in the reform of corporate governance.  Companies such as listed companies on the other hand are taking necessary measures in compliance of the rules to ensure that they are socially responsible, transparent and observes highest levels of corporate governance. In bid to meet some of the thresholds, organizations have taken advantage of what digital technology has to offer to stay competitive and to be compliant with most of the established corporate governance policies. And under the recent pandemic situation, it helps to accelerate the process of merging the corporate governance with the digital applications has seen the emergence of new challenges and opportunities and the article will examine such issues in details.

Challenges of Corporate Governance in Hong Kong

Data Security and Privacy Issues

In the digital world, most of the companies are struggling to maintain their cybersecurity and data breaches in release of private information to unauthorized third party are likely to occur. With highly connected computers and easy accessibility to information, it is easier today for confidential data to land in the wrong hands. Data leakage can cause a serious blow to even the most established companies and with technological advancement, the numbers of privacy issues are likely to increase due to the challenge of managing the internal data. In the past years, more than several issue had significant issues to do with data breaches.  According to Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, 2019, Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN), a company that provides network services was hacked leading to exposure of data of more than 380,000 customers. The incident had immediate effects on the company as the stock price plunged due to lack of trust from the customers and legal implications as it failed to protect the customer data. Such incident raised several questions on the roles that organizations play to ensure that all their data systems, servers and networks are protected. Companies that have developed the most advanced security plans towards their internal data are likely to thrive in this age of digital revolution.

Internal Threat from Employees

It is possible that some employees may have malicious thought and misuse their powers such as access to sensitive information to dent the image of the company. As organizations seeks to enhance employee autonomy in the workplace and to automate their services, it has led to several users having excess privileges, utilization of multiple devices that have sensitive information and enhanced technologies that are difficult to manage.

Opportunities for Corporate Governance in Hong Kong

Enhanced IT Governance

IT governance is the next frontier for companies that wish to produce value addition and unmatched products in today鈥檚 century. The ability to manage most of the IT operations of a business can help it to fulfill its strategic goals and objectives. The adaptable and flexible companies that utilizes the IT governance as part of its values, mission and vision can easily overcome most barriers in the business environment (Spremic, 2010). The key decision makers in the organization should be in the forefront to ensure that most decisions made in the company supports the IT governance. Most challenges such as privacy issues and cyber security can be best solved when the corporate heads spearhead a culture of cyber security and cyber awareness in the workplace.

Compliance efforts to Mitigate the Risks

Businesses operate in risky environments and those that have advanced plans to mitigate the risks are likely to survive and thrive. Firms that are more technology driven have already incorporated a new system known as Risk Management System (RMS). The RMS can help to monitor and enhance most of the business activities to comply with the updated regulatory requirements. Hong Kong has specific principles on the data privacy and companies should incorporate governance in the data management to ensure that all the principles are followed. Simple steps such as establishing applicable guidelines in collecting the personal data, notifying the owners of the data about the intent to use it and protecting the data can guarantee compliance from the companies. Companies can also take advantage of the internationally recognized standards on data management from GDPR guidelines and purchase appropriate insurance products to mitigate the risks and protect the company鈥檚 image, prevent leakage of the data of employees and customers.

Transparency in Governance

Organizations are finding it mandatory to utilize the business communication technologies and that has led to transparency in most of the organizations. As companies continues to exchange information using the various communication tools, they have achieved transparency which is a key determinant factor in corporate governance. The enhanced communications between the board and senior executives, management and the frontline workers can be instrumental in monitoring performance and exposing of irregularities to ensure that everyone becomes responsible for their actions.

Conclusion

The digital age has made it possible for companies to advance their corporate governance such emphasizing on compliance, enhancing on internal controls, better risk management strategies, better working environments for employees and faster decision making. The challenges such as cyber security, network attacks, internal threat and ransomware should act as opportunities for the companies to advance their corporate responsibility. Most of the challenges can be mitigated by proper measures such as adhering to data privacy rules, enhancing security through encryption and firewalls, regularly adapting the software and operating system, minimizing the level of access of employees to sensitive data and providing the training to employees about business code of conduct. The companies should also be willing to adjust most of their practices, business codes and updating their internal policies to ensure that they observe all the regulations and requirements in regard to corporate governance.

The post A Discussion About Recent Challenges and Opportunities Towards Corporate Governance in Hong Kong appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

The transformation agent to strengthen the judicious use of public funds has given wave for the introduction of Public Financial Management Reforms in Ghana. These reforms are expected to strengthen the fiscal space of the economy by giving free drive to budget implementation and economic development through the macro and micro indicators i.e. inflation, interest rate, exchange rate, debt to GDP, servicing of loans and growth rate.

The major Public Financial Management Reform introduced by Government in 2010 is the Public Financial Management System: Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (GIFMIS), to integrate Public Expenditure and Revenue mobilization on a common platform with much focus on Budget implementation.  

The Government in 2007 introduced the Treasury Single Account (TSA). The system was however not successful as a result of the absence of a legal framework to back the policy and wrong approach to implementation direction. With the passage of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) which replaced the Financial Administration Act, 2003 (Act 654), the implementation of the Treasury Single Account has been given adequate momentum but still lacks its taste of relevancy.

Section 46 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 established the Treasury Single Account as a unified structure of government bank accounts that enables the consolidation of government cash resources, and into which all government cash including amounts of money received by covered entities shall be deposited and from which all expenditure of government and covered entities shall be made to ensure optimum utilisation of government cash resources.

The covered entities as stated in the Act include the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary; constitutional bodies; ministries, departments, agencies, and local government authorities; the public service; autonomous agencies and statutory bodies.

Working on the principle of unity of cash and unity of the treasury where the government notwithstanding its various sub-units could operate a single treasury and account, the successful implementation of the Treasury Single Account system in various countries across the world including but not limited to the United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, India, Uganda, and Nigeria has contributed to effective cash management in these countries.

The primary objective for the adoption of the TSA is to ensure the effective consolidation of all government cash resources with the aim of improving control over public funds towards the improvement of efficient financial management while using the access to the cash resources to enhance monitoring.

In addition to the above, the government has to use this system to reduce the tendency of the government from borrowing at high-interest rates, while funds are sitting idle in the various accounts of the covered entities under consideration.

This is expected to reduce to total finance cost incurred by the government from borrowing from the commercial bank or through the issue of Treasury Bills and Bonds.

The TSA is also expected to lower the actual government borrowings and reduce pressure on short-term yield with the objectives of driving down Treasury Bill rates over the medium-term. This forms a critical component of helping to reduce the cost of borrowing and reducing borrowing in the medium to long-term.

This will help the government meet various funding obligations of government entities in a timely manner as there is a greater pool of funds available to the government for their operations, as well as a reduction in various transaction times required to raise the required revenue to meet particular commitments. Also, the maintenance of the Treasury Single Account is to reduce the risk of the government resorting to the Central Bank for overdrafts to finance its expenditure. It is also expected to reduce the cost of building buffers for cash management purposes.

With the reduction in the tendency of government from borrowing from the financial sector, it is expected to strengthen the government鈥檚 fiscal space. The lower level of government activity is also expected to create room for the private sector to access funds within the financial sector to facilitate growth and development.

Implementation of Treasury Single Account

Although there are several variants of the TSA structure that conform to the objectives discussed above, most policy implementers of the subject broadly group it into two categories: Centralized and Distributed TSA structures. The TSA systems established in most countries fall somewhere in between these two models and involve various types of bank accounts.

A purely centralised arrangement is one in which all revenue and expenditure transactions of the government pass through a single account generally maintained with the Central Bank. With this typical centralised system, the TSA is composed of a single bank account (sometimes with subsidiary ledger accounts) at the Central Bank which is operated either by a centralised authority (such as the treasury and its regional units) or by a number of budget institutions.

At the other extreme, a TSA could be virtually operational even though line agencies down to the lowest level in the organisational hierarchy are allowed to retain separate transaction accounts in the banking system. However, in the latter case, balances in all transaction accounts should be transferred into the TSA main account at the end of each day. Countries, such as Uganda have several linked bank accounts outside the TSA’s main account with their balances automatically remitted at the end of each day to the Central Bank.

With the implementation of the TSA in Ghana, the operating structure is tilted towards the decentralised operation of TSA and as such, will see the Government of Ghana closing over 15,172 bank accounts with the Bank of Ghana and commercial banks in Ghana.

The implementation of this system is also in line with the requirement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Extended Credit Facility Agreement and is expected that the TSA will be well integrated into the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information Systems.

However, one major question is how the consolidation of cash balances through a TSA will interface with transaction processing and accounting systems, the latter being either centralised or decentralised.

Architecture and Institutional Scope

1. The Government of Ghana shall implement a Distributed TSA for both central and sub-national government entities. Under the Distributed architecture, line agencies down to the lowest level in the hierarchy are allowed to retain separate transaction accounts in the banking system. However, balances in all transaction accounts should be swept into the TSA main account at the end of each day.

• All MDAs, MMDAs, Public Institutions, Public Corporations, and State Owned Enterprises shall participate in the TSA.           

• The Paris Declaration of 2005 on aid effectiveness encourages the integration of donor funds into the countries鈥� PFM systems, which include the TSA.

• Such integration contributes to effective public financial management and helps in the economic growth of countries.

• To this end, Government is transferring donor funds from the commercial banks to the Central Bank.

• Locating the TSA at the Central Bank offers several advantages as stipulated by the IMF Working Paper:

1. Provides a safe haven for government cash deposits which minimizes credit risk exposure.

• Aids the efficient management of government liquidity, and facilitates the Central Bank鈥檚 coordination of its monetary policy operations in managing liquidity in the economy with government鈥檚 cash and debt management functions.

• Can facilitate cost-effective banking arrangements and speedy settlements (it might be possible to negotiate with the Central Bank to act as the clearinghouse for government operations, which may speed settlement).

• Allows for clarity of banking arrangements and remuneration policies between the Treasury and the Central Bank (a service level agreement is normally negotiated to clarify obligations and responsibilities when the Central Bank acts as the clearing house for government operations).

• In view of this, Government is transferring all donor funds to the Central Bank to facilitate better fiscal and monetary policy coordination as well as better reconciliation of fiscal and banking data, which in turn will improve the quality of fiscal information.
• The successful implementation of the TSA would result in a major revamping of Ghana鈥檚 Public Financial Management.
• Ghana鈥檚 dream of achieving strong economic growth, therefore, requires the unflinching support of all Development Partners.

Benefits of TSA from the foregoing, it is obvious that the primary benefit of a TSA is the mechanism it provides for proper monitoring of government receipts and expenditure. In the Ghanaian case, it will help to block most if not all the leakages that have been the bane of the growth of the economy. We have a situation where some MDA鈥檚 manage their finances like independent empire and remit limited revenue to government treasuries. Under a properly run TSA, this is not possible as agencies of government are meant to spend in line with duly approved budget provisions. The maintenance of a single account for the government will enable the Ministry of Finance to monitor fund flow as no agency of government is allowed to maintain any operational bank account outside the oversight of the Ministry of Finance. Below are some listed benefits of TSA:

1. Allows complete and timely information on government cash resources: In countries with advanced payment and settlement systems and an Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) with adequate interfaces with the banking system, this information will be available in real-time. As a minimum, complete updated balances should be available daily.
2. Improves appropriation control: The TSA ensures that the Ministry of Finance has full control over budget allocations, and strengthens the authority of the budget appropriation. When separate bank accounts are maintained, the result is often a fragmented system, where funds provided for budgetary appropriations are augmented by additional cash resources that become available through various creative, often extra-budgetary, measures.
3. Improves operational control during budget execution: When the treasury has full information about cash resources, it can plan and implement budget execution in an efficient, transparent, and reliable manner. The existence of uncertainty regarding whether the treasury will have sufficient funds to finance programmed expenditures may lead to sub-optimal behavior by budget entities, such as exaggerating their estimates for cash needs or channeling expenditures through off-budget arrangements.
4. Enables efficient cash management: A TSA facilitates regular monitoring of government cash balances. It also enables higher quality cash outturn analysis to be undertaken (e.g., identifying causal factors of variances and distinguishing causal factors from random variations in cash balances).
5. Reduces bank fees and transaction costs: Reducing the number of bank accounts results in a lower administrative cost for the government for maintaining these accounts, including the cost associated with bank reconciliation, and reduced banking fees.
6. Facilitates efficient payment mechanisms. A TSA ensures that there is no ambiguity regarding the volume or the location of the government funds, and makes it possible to monitor payment mechanisms precisely. It can result in substantially lower transaction costs because of economies of scale in processing payments. The establishment of a TSA is usually combined with elimination of the 鈥渇loat鈥� in the banking and the payment systems, and the introduction of transparent fee and penalty structures for payment services. Many governments have achieved substantial reductions in their real cost of banking services by introducing a TSA.
7. Improves bank reconciliation and quality of fiscal data: A TSA allows for effective reconciliation between the government accounting systems and cash flow statements from the banking system. This reduces the risk of errors in reconciliation processes, and improves the timeliness and quality of the fiscal accounts.
8. Lowers liquidity reserve needs: A TSA reduces the volatility of cash flows through the treasury, thus allowing it to maintain a lower cash reserve/ buffer to meet unexpected fiscal volatility.

Disadvantages

It is not all rosy though since there may be some legal barriers to full implementation of TSA. Some MDAs have financial autonomy granted to them by legislation including powers to maintain a fund from which to pay expenses and even to invest surplus funds and maintain a reserve.

Some MDAs generate revenue in various foreign currencies and TSA should also cater for them especially dealing with exchange difference accounting in their respective annual reports given that the means of establishing exchange differences at the end of the period by translating closing foreign currency balances may no longer be applicable.

States and local governments should also be encouraged to adopt TSA so that monthly Government account allocations can be paid directly into their TSAs held at the Bank of Ghana thereby making it easier for the government to manage liquidity in the system.

Banks and Challenge of Treasury Single Account Policy

There have been mixed feelings about the effects and consequences of the newly introduced Treasury Single Account by the Ministry of Finance, ministries, departments, and agencies as well as government business operators.

While some financial operators believe that the policy will give the government an opportunity to have one-hand information about its accounts, others feel that withdrawing the funds from commercial banks will further deplete the account of such banks as well as not offering the MDAs the privilege, the opportunity to monitor their own accounts where it is domiciled.

Others also believe that the single account policy will create problems especially where it will be difficult for the Government to be able to know at a glance the revenue accruing to each ministry or amount debited, as all accounts would have been lumped together.

Some analysts have said that in the event of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) fully complying with the directive to pay all their monies into a Treasury Single Account, TSA, banks may lose major projected sum saved with them by the MDAs. According to findings, banks may lose not less than 6 billion Ghana cedis as a result of the transparency move.

Also, it is expected that the returns of lenders in the economy driven substantially by net interest margins would further be crippled by the TSA implementation because the single account which is supposed to unify and monitor incoming and outgoing government transactions for transparency and accountability will deny the banks funds belonging to MDAs currently in the vaults of banks.

The implementation of the policy has not been effective due to inadequate impact on the target outcome to be achieved. The success story cannot be celebrated since the expectant result cannot be felt in the management of public funds. Purposefully mush has to do with the implementation of the policy. The policy is to make available idle funds in the commercial banks and the Central Bank useful by discouraging domestic borrowing and the need to fall on overdraft at needed time. 

The policy is to vent the decentralization of Bank Accounts span through the district and municipal into a centralized account at the Bank of Ghana. This practice will give meaning to Government laying hands on all Government funds available at the moment for quick decision to managing of funds. Government at a point of payment of salary with dwindling funds of the Consolidated Account, it is always necessary to fall on the inactive funds of the MDAs and MMDAs.

To strategically implement the policy effectively and efficiently, there is the need for Ministry of Finance to embark on strict adherence to Cash Position, Cash Ceiling and Action Plan.

Cash positioning is a planning tool that helps you view your daily cash position by currency or bank account. It allows you to project your cash needs, and evaluate your company’s liquidity position. The daily cash positions are based on actual cash flows from various Oracle Applications (GIFMIS).

The overriding objective of cash positioning is to ensure that the government is able to fund its expenditure in a timely manner and meet its obligations as they fall due. Cost-effectiveness, risk reduction, and operational efficiency are also important. Cash positioning is a critical, albeit not so visible, dimension of effective public financial management, with important linkages to monetary policy implementation. More precisely, cash positioning encompasses two distinct but related activities: cash flow forecasting and cash balance management. The positioning is to answer questions: (i) Over a given time period (daily, weekly, monthly, and so on), what is the volume of the government鈥檚 aggregate cash inflows and outflows? (ii) At the end of each time period, what is the balance of cash at hand? The latter is concerned with this question: (iii) What actions do the government take to ensure that it has the 鈥渃orrect鈥� amount of cash at hand at any point? This posting highlights some of the issues related to managing cash balances, which is not very well covered in the public financial management literatures.

Changes in the daily cash balance of the TSA are domiciled at the Central Bank, and are mirrored by changes in banking sector liquidity. Indeed, they may be the most significant autonomous influence on liquidity. The Central Bank takes these changes into account in its monetary policy operations. Effective cash positioning is characterized by agreement between the ministry of finance and the Central Bank on the flow of information from the ministry of finance to the Central Bank on the likely future size of the TSA. Ideally, this should be provided in real-time, or at least before the start of each day. In as much as the Ministry of Finance can manage its cash flows reasonably tightly around a target balance for the TSA, the government鈥檚 cash balance becomes largely neutral for monetary policy purposes.

Action Plans: As part of the strategy to get a meaningful implementation of the TSA the Ministry of finance should be concerned and focus on institution’s action plans to determine the cash needed to undertake activities at a particular time within the budget circle in an institution. With effective monitoring of Action Plans,  one could tell the amount of cash needed within a quarter and annually. The accrued amount sitting idle in institutions accounts with commercial banks can be utilized accordingly for profitable ventures before the lapse of budget.

Cash Positioning: Cash positioning is a planning tool that helps you view your daily cash position by currency or bank account. Cash positioning allows you to project your cash needs, and evaluate your liquidity position. The daily cash positions are based on actual cash flows.

Cash Disbursement Ceiling (CDC): The CDC accounting is another control mechanism of the government accounting system. The cash operations of the government under the CDC accounting are limited within the boundaries of the appropriations released to government agencies in the form of allotments. The Ministry of Finance must instruct institutions to adhere to cash ceiling principles. The budget is broken down into ceilings and monitored sector by sector.

Emphasis on Budget: Another important characteristic of government accounting is its emphasis on budget. Expenditures cannot be incurred without the prior approval of a budget by the legislative body of government. An item of expenditure may be legal but the absence of a budget or funding makes the transaction impossible.

The government needs a serious implementation strategy to achieve the stated objective of the Treasury Single Account. The above guidelines will make much impact and also put to use idle monies sitting at commercial banks. The Central Accounts should be highly considered if success needs to be choked.

The post The Intriguing Effect of Treasury Single Account Implementation on Public Financial Management in Ghana appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Internal control is often said to be a set of procedures or measures put in place within an organization to prevent fraud, misuse and abuse of an organization resources.

According to the COSO 2013 framework, internal controls have five integrated components namely; control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring activities.

COSO 2013 framework further indicates that there are seventeen principles with in these five integrated components namely;

1. Demonstration of commitment to integrity and ethical values,
2. Exercising oversight responsibility,
3. Establishing structure, authority, and responsibility,
4. Demonstration of commitment to competence,
5. Enforcing accountability,
6. Specifying suitable objectives,
7. Identifying and analyzing risk,
8. Assessment of fraud risk
9. Identifying and analyzing significant change,
10. Selection and development of control activities,
11. Selection and development of general controls over technology,
12. Deploying control activities through policies and procedures,
13. Use of relevant information,
14. Communicating internally,
15. Communicating externally,
16. conduct of ongoing and/or separate evaluation
17.  evaluating and communicating deficiencies.

It is a popular view that when adequate controls are in place in an organization, it reduces or minimizes the risk of fraud or theft. Organizations will have to maintain robust and effective controls in order to prevent fraud.

However, what is mostly forgotten is that all the different processes and functions within an organization are managed by humans thus susceptible to mistake or deliberate intentions to commit fraud. Internal control therefore has its own limitations. Dishonest employees will always find weaknesses in the control procedures to circumvent the organization policies and commit fraud.

In as much as robust and effective internal controls will prevent fraud, misuse and abuse of an organization resources, it is important to note that honest staff with high integrity are required to safeguard organization resources as humans manage the processes.

Dishonest staff handling the various processes in the organization could collude and circumvent the controls to commit fraud. This is why in additional to all the rigorous control put in place, there is a need to recruit very honest staff with integrity to manage the various processes and functions within an organization.

The post Internal Controls or Staff Integrity: What Safeguards an Organization Assets appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Written by Willem Alexander Coleman

Sports and Development in Ghana

For far too long, all we have done as a nation is to merely talk about the potential of sports and how our glory days in sports are long gone. They say money solves all problems, and so we need the finance to move our sports to the next level, but another fundamental problem we have with our sports here in Ghana is the lack of development.

Development here has two sides. We have the development of sports and using sports for development. And the two are not mutually exclusive. The two could go hand-in-hand, even though they are two separate things. When we talk about development of sport, we basically mean better sports performance and increased participation in sports. When we talk about sports for development, it refers to how we can use sports as a tool to improve our education and health and bring social inclusion and help other issues like peace-building and gender equality, among others.

In calling for a 鈥渞evolution鈥� in sports, one of the things we need to tackle is the perception that sport is merely an avenue for recreation. Recreation is not a bad thing, but there is much more to sport than just recreation. Also we need to rid ourselves of the perception that sport is for school drop-outs. I want to use this example. Let鈥檚 look at the use of the English language. Even though English is not a measure of one鈥檚 intelligence, it does say a lot about our literacy level. Just take any sports star from yesteryear and you will notice that the person has no trouble speaking decent English. Take a random talent today and chances are that the person will struggle to string two sentences in English. This could mean that either the educational system was much better then, or the fact that they were involved in sports exposed them to a better education, or both.

Luckily, now with all the sports academies springing up in Ghana, they take a keen interest in not just seeing the kids grow up to be good athletes, but also better human beings and giving them an education. Sport for development is high on their agenda. It is time that we extend this orientation to the rest of the population, and indeed, to corporate Ghana. The social enterprises involved in sports are doing their best, but help is needed from the general population and the corporate world.

Apart from education and health and all the other clich茅 stuff, sports creates employment. By employment not only do I mean for the athletes themselves, but there are so many other opportunities in management and administration as well. Not only that, but a whole ecosystem of business can be created with the establishment of sports facilities that gives our sports much more value than it currently has. I am of the opinion that with the alarming number of unemployed people, especially people with qualifications as high as master鈥檚 degrees, and with all the opportunities that exist in sports, there is no better time for many of these people to consider starting a business in sports, or around sports. The sheer amount of opportunities that exist in sports could give one enough work to do, and to help their less entrepreneurially inclined friends to get employment as well.

Basically, we need to start taking sports seriously again. We need to get the schools involved, we need to embark on some sort of civic education campaign where parents can also see the potential that sport has to change lives and communities. We seriously need to re-orient the population. Sport is powerful. Sport went as far as ending a civil war right next door to us, in Ivory Coast. Do we really need another example of how important sports can be? The time for talk is over. We need to act now. Despite the havoc that Covid-19 is wreaking, now that sports is gradually coming back, we should remember this period as the time that sports in Ghana took off again.

Change is coming. It is time.

The post Sports and Development in Ghana appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Written by Jason (Tan Tai) Truong, DBA Student

Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: An Economic Perspective

The economic perspective of enforcing Intellectual Property Rights. The concept of the Intellectual Property Rights is referred to the protection of the product of the intellect of the humans which are the mind creations. In this research, doctrinal methodology is used as doctrinal assessment of the literature to form a base for the useful conduction of legal research. It covers Intellectual Property Rights and the market failure and evaluating the welfare impacts of different types of Intellectual Property rights encroachments. It also provides the practical evidence and execution strategy of Intellectual Property Rights. It is needed to review the basic economic principles to protect several kinds of Intellectual Property Rights, by directing towards several distinct market failures that increase government involvement. Considering the economic concerns highlighted in this dissertation and its suggestions regarding the enforcement plans of IPRs in developing states, it can be concluded that primarily the internal motivation for devoting considerable sources to fight piracy and counterfeiting is reluctantly forced in emerging states. , it was observed that the studies conducted regarding the economic aspect of Intellectual property rights are very limited. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to provide an economic prospect on strategies and regulations with respect to the IPRs implementation. The study explains fundamental visions from the economic sources to identify primacies and main concerns to distribute threatened law execution sources. From this study, two basic themes emerge. First is that the several distinct kinds of IP violations possess diverse safety impacts, that are dependent on primary failures of the market and its characteristics. Previous researches that have tried to measure the “damages” resulted by the piracy of IPRs have at times neglected these variations. Second, in the planning of IPRs implementation policy, decision-makers are required to consider the motivations of manufacturers and customers for breaking of the law. Considering these motivations provides significant understandings regarding the limitations of the governmental policies and the usefulness of several distinct kinds of implementation activities.

The post Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: An Economic Perspective appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Covid-19, known as Corona Virus, that broke up in 2020, is according to Mitroff, 鈥渙ne of the worst crises in every sense鈥� (Mitroff, 2020). As crisis continues, business leaders admit that they have never experienced a situation like this before (McKinsey, 2020). Unknown is always interesting to discover and study as it gives an opportunity to learn and take a lesson for the future. Covid-19 was not known before and it would be interesting to study its impact on the organizations – What difficulties and challenges have the leaders come across? What tools, communication, resources and solutions  have been used in order to cope with the crisis? These questions call for the answers.

Global Pandemic has already impacted various industries, organizations, productions, supply chains and consumption and it is already considered as the third and greatest economic, financial and social crisis of the XXI st Century, following the September 11th and Financial Crisis of 2008 (Gurria, 2020). Mitroff states that apart from the obvious connection between the virus and the financial markets, little attention has been given to other important connections (Mitroff, 2020). This is where a gap can be seen and this is the reason why I would like to focus on crisis management and leadership challenges during the pandemic crisis let alone studying the challenges the leaders faced, inquiring what tools, communication, solutions and resources  have been used in order to cope with the crisis based on the examples of the respective companies. Situation like Covid-19 crisis has never happened before and we will not find a ready 鈥渞ecipe鈥� how to manage the company and what tools and mechanisms should the leaders put in place during Covid-19. However, literature provides us with certain leadership competencies during crisis and they should be analyzed further. The research aims at presenting crisis management during the pandemic along with the specific leadership competencies and solutions and tools that some leaders in Switzerland took during the crisis as well as the lessons they have learnt. After all, effective response to a crisis has an impact on company鈥檚 reputation, productivity and overall success.  What we learn from the pandemic crisis now, can help us in the future.

The post Crisis Management and Leadership Challenges in the Context of Pandemic Crisis appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

Chinese word CRISIS consists of two ideograms: the first means DANGER, the second means OPPORTUNITY. Most people perceive the current pandemic as a DANGER manifesting itself in its worst forms. It causes drastic behavior change, quarantine and social isolation. It creates panic, shortages and anxiety. It at times dramatically reduces economic activity, destroys stock markets and paves the way for recession. It causes schools, colleges, even kindergartens to close. Many sport events, concerts, competitions and championships are canceled. An overstretched health system is bursting at the seams. Some borders are closed, international traffic has stopped, and airlines, cultural institutions, tourism and the entertainment industry are suffering huge losses. Concerned heads of government hold press conferences on a daily basis to portray the murky reality, offer drastic measures and restrictive solutions because the problem doesn鈥檛 seem to go away, and a possible second wave is just behind the corner. Immersed in such a deep crisis, is it at all possible to see the pandemic as an OPPORTUNITY?

First of all, we had three months to stop and rethink. We have a unique opportunity to question our values 鈥嬧�媋nd try to get rid of false myths we are surrounded with. Now, more seriously than ever, we may ask ourselves whether selfishness, consumerism, alienation and confrontation are good approaches in dealing with our neighbors and our environment. We are confronted with options to question personal priorities, to reinvent the meaning of life, work and all our activities. We are offered a chance to better understand the risks of global connectivity and the complexity of all the consequences. We are becoming painfully aware of the necessary balance between personal freedoms and restrictions that are imposed on us by the interest of common good. We are now able to compare how a deep crisis is addressed by populist democracies and by authoritarian regimes and learn from the mistakes. Finally, we may (and must) draw lessons from all this by initiating faster and deeper reforms of the (global and local) political, educational, health, social and, of course, economic systems.

Apart from these somewhat abstract and philosophical gains, there are a number of concrete positive consequences of the pandemic-caused crisis. We have experienced a period of reduced energy consumption and its (short-term) positive effects on environment. During the pandemic, the cooperation of scientists is strengthened and the exchange of information between the East and the West has increased. Opposition to vaccination against infectious diseases is now drastically reduced. We have experienced a major shift towards teleworking and the digital transformation trends are gaining momentum. The need for openness and transparency in media and political discourse has grown and the tendency to produce “fake news” has been reduced. Sensitivity for older and more vulnerable sections of the population, including people of color and minorities who are neglected and marginalized has increased. The perception of “private space” is changed and the overall hygiene habits of global population are improved.

In the meantime, while the crises and quarantines of all kinds are still taking place, here are some tips to help you keep calm and avoid depression:

鈥� Watch pandemic news only once a day

鈥� Feed on positive thoughts

鈥� Listen to music that makes you relaxed

鈥� Exercise, dance, and meditate

鈥� Be kind to your loved ones

鈥� Play chess and other board games

鈥� Communicate with your friends online

鈥� Start a long-delayed diet

鈥� Return to a neglected hobby

鈥� Prepare for a more digital future

I wish you all good health and good luck!

The post Pandemic and its Lessons appeared first on 黑料不打烊.

The pressures associated with the speed of competition, including the digitalization of workspaces, are increasing the need for modern organizations to drive employee satisfaction and engagement. Integrating gamification into the workplace has been identified as a possible strategy to promote employee participation, engagement, and loyalty.

Gamification is defined as the application of game design elements in a non-game context, which, in this case, is the workplace. In the article that was published at Human Resource Management journal, which is one of the most reputable journals in the world ranked by Financial Times 50, we presented a 12-month longitudinal study designed to investigate the role of gamification in fostering job satisfaction and engagement. The findings from a sample of 398 employees, including both treatment and control groups from a large multinational company that introduced a gamified human resource management (HRM) system, revealed the effects of certain gamification experiential outcomes related to driving employee satisfaction and engagement at work. Overall, our study highlights the possibilities of employing gamified HRM systems to influence employee attitudes and behavior at work.

You can read see the article here– full text is available here.

The post How can gamification help in the human resource management context? appeared first on 黑料不打烊.