Purpose: This study examined the role of professional ethics in the relationship between monitoring and evaluation, and project success among metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the Central Region, Ghana. Design/methods/approach: To achieve the study objectives, a survey was conducted among 154 planning officers, heads of works, auditors, budget officers, finance officers, social welfare and community development officers among MMDAs in Central Region, Ghana. The data processing software was SPSS version 25 and SmartPLs version 3; and the data analytical tool was the partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The study found that monitoring had a negative significant effect on public project success; and evaluation has positive significant effect on public project success. Also, the study found that professional ethics plays a moderating role in the relationship between monitoring, evaluation and public project success. Practical Implications: The study has developed a new integrated model to enhance public project success in the public sector through monitoring, evaluation and professional ethics. Originality/value: The study successfully applied the agency theory and theory of change in the context of Ghanaian public sector. More precisely, these theories have been integrated to form a new model for explaining the role that professional ethics play in the relationship between monitoring, evaluation and project success in the context of the Ghanaian public sector. This newly developed integrated model has a wider predictability as compared to the individual theories.
This study examines the determinants of airport technical inefficiency in the United States by distinguishing between persistent (long-term, structural) and transient (short-term, time-varying) inefficiency. Using panel data from 59 U.S. airports from 2009 to 2019, a stochastic frontier model with an output-oriented distance function is employed to decompose total inefficiency into its structural and operational components. Results show that average overall technical efficiency is 0.85, with about 45% of inefficiency attributed to persistent factors. Airports managed by independent authorities exhibit higher technical efficient than those under state or local control, highlighting the benefits of institutional autonomy. Membership in multi-airport systems is associated with lower persistent technical efficiency through coordinated planning, whereas hub airports exhibit greater persistent technical inefficiency due to congestion and coordination complexity. Airports in larger population centers exhibit lower transient inefficiency, while those in wealthier regions face efficiency losses from congestion.
Public transit agencies make important decisions about the type, frequency, and location of transit services in American cities. Many are governed by appointed boards of directors. Board composition and responsibilities can vary considerably across public agencies, but research into how transit boards make decisions is limited. This paper utilizes qualitative methods to investigate the decision-making processes of public transit boards in the United States. How do public transit boards make decisions? What are transit board member and agency staff perspectives on the value of certain types of expertise, lived experience and diversity among board members? We find that board members and staff view decision-making as an amicable process influenced heavily by staff expertise and with a general lack of representation from riders. We also find that governing structures elevate the influence of elected officials outside of the transit agency who shape the expertise of transit boards through appointment powers.
