ALRAQABA . ISSUE 15
75
Theses
public sector emerged due to the weak
regulatory system of the public entities, low
level of disclosure and transparency, conflict
of interests, and the widespread practice of
financial and administrative corruption.
3. All previous studies in this domain had
agreed on the need to consider and apply the
concept of governance across the government
sector units. For the purposes of improving
institutional performance, it is imperative to shift
from the paradigm of public funds management
into the management of activities and programs
resulting from the use of public funds.
4. The utilization of balanced scorecard
elements and methodology in the corporate
sector has taken considerable attention from
international organizations and research efforts.
This may be attributed to the lack of agreement
on the main findings and performance drivers.
With the absence of internal processes, clients,
learning and growth drivers in most developing
countries focus on the financial aspect as the
driver for controlling, improving, and enhancing
performance.
5. There are limitations to applying the
balanced performance system, together with
its drivers, elements, and methodologies. Such
difficulties emerged on the ground owing to the
lack of agreement on the financial and non-
financial indicators to be used for deciding on
the outcome of applying governance in the
government units.
6. There is no scientific-based or on-ground
evidence on how far it is needed to integrate
rules of public governance and drivers of the
balanced scorecard to enable the improvement
and development of institutional performance.
7. The government units within the State of
Kuwait are still relying on the management of
the public fund in its input stage (e.g., allocating
and using financial appropriations). However,
no attention is given to managing the outputs
(e.g., measuring the productivity, efficiency,
and effectiveness of public spending).
8. The State Audit Bureau is implementing
an audit system based on a range of laws
that do not explicitly consider the rules and
principles of public governance. Despite all
the INTOSAI audit standards (ISSAIs) pointing
to the need for SAIs to audit the performance
of government activities and programs, the
audit system adopted by SAB is merely
focused on controlling the financial aspects
of the government units and auditing the
redeployments and overruns of budgets.
9. Special efforts were being made by the
State Audit Bureau to develop and improve the
institutional performance of the public sector
and to ensure the achievement of intended
targets, activities, and programs. SAB had also
prepared a governance guide for assessing the
commitment of the entities subject to its audit to
the principles and rules of public governance.
b. Findings of the field study:
1. It has been proven that there is a limited
commitment by SAB to specific rules of
governance and elements of the balanced
scorecard across the different dimensions
representing the approval and validity standard.
2. It has been proven that there is a critical need
for employing the different variables governing
the institutional performance, which have the
potential to improve performance in the future
through the integration of governance and a
balanced scorecard.
