The importance of management control in the implementation of public tasks by local government

Abstract

The concept of management control in the Polish legal system has been implemented together with the amendment to the provisions of the Public Finance Act of 27 August 2009. The essence of management control concerns a different view of local government decision-makers on managerial activity in public administration. Management control solutions contribute to increasing the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of public services. In the activities of local government units, the concept of management control may also contribute to the self-improvement of local government administration. The main purpose of the article is an attempt to assess and demonstrate the functioning of management control in local government units in Poland. The practical goal was to illustrate the solutions that local government decision-makers can implement to design management control systems in offices. The research hypothesis is as follows: The effective implementation of public tasks by the local government depends on the quality of the management control system. The hypothesis was verified by means of an electronic questionnaire. The research conducted demonstrated that the proper functioning of management control depends on the involvement of the head of a local government. A helpful instrument in assessing management systems is the use of internal audit. The research results illustrated that an obligatory audit commission is of little importance in ensuring the efficiency of management systems in local government administration. As for risk management, respondents pointed out that the main barrier to achieving this goal of management control is, unfortunately, a lack of a uniform risk management methodology in the public sector.