Does (better) regulation really matter? Examining public financial management legislation in Greece

• Autores: Georgia Kontogeorga
• Localización: European journal of law and economics, ISSN 0929-1261, Vol. 43, Nº 1, 2017, págs. 153-166
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Greece is thought to suffer from weak implementation of the law, including weak legislative monitoring and enforcement, a situation that undermines confidence in the rule of law. In recent years, increasing importance has been given to better regulation, namely the improvement of the quality of legislation with regards to state functioning. The purpose of this article is to examine the contribution of better regulation in the compliance of public entities with budgetary laws and regulations. The survey was the first such study to be conducted in Greece, and distributed questionnaires to auditors of the Hellenic Court of Audit, which is the Supreme Audit Institution charged with the authority to conduct external auditing of public entities and their executives. The survey results have confirmed the sense of weakness mentioned above, as most respondents considered the existing legislative framework of public financial management to be unclear, a situation that deterred compliance. Improved law design is expected to ameliorate compliance by public sector bodies, which apparently violate the law more due to its ambiguity and complexity rather than to any deliberate intention. Therefore, non-compliance should be better addressed through simplification of regulations rather than coercive enforcement.