Role Of Committees Research Articles

The Role of Working Groups of Commissioners in Co‐ordinating Policy Implementation: The Case of Trans‐European Networks (TENs)

AbstractAnalysis of the Commission's role in policy implementation has focused largely on the administrative rather than political level. Yet little attention has been paid to the importance of high‐level Commission actors, such as Commissioners and Director‐Generals at this stage. This article analyses the role of a working group (WG) of Commissioners in monitoring and co‐ordinating the implementation of trans‐European networks (TENs) in transport. It argues that formally institutionalized structures for intra‐College co‐operation provide important arenas for creativity, entrepreneurship and consensus‐building. Ultimately, the consistent and sustained political involvement of Commissioners improves the Commission's administrative co‐ordination and may, ultimately, help secure better policy implementation.

THE EU COMITOLOGY SYSTEM: WHAT ROLE FOR THE COMMISSION?

The literature on comitology has largely ignored the European Commission's actual behaviour in the daily workings of the numerous comitology committees that were designed to control it. On the basis of survey data of Danish and Dutch representatives on nearly all comitology committees, this paper investigates the Commission's role in the system. We find that the Commission acts both as a mediator and as a policy advocate, but to varying degrees. We take a first step towards understanding this behaviour by an inspection of four arguments found in the literature on comitology and the Commission: the constraining or enabling impact of the comitology procedures; the institutional position of the responsible Directorate-General; the nature of the cases dealt with by the committees and, finally, the intensity of the member states' preferences in relation to the committees' cases. In comitology, each of these arguments shapes the mediating or the advocating behaviour of the Commission.

An analysis of audit committee effectiveness at the largest listed companies in South Africa from a CFO and audit committee perspective

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and analyse the effective functioning of audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa.Problem investigated: The modern audit committee is often seen as the panacea of the corporate world and as such is looked upon to cure all the financial reporting and control-related problems of entities. Audit committees are, however, not always as effective as they are held to be, as is evidenced by the many well-known corporate scandals and business failures that occurred where audit committees existed and fraudulent financial reporting, audit failures, internal control breakdowns and other irregularities prevailed. The modern audit committee will be of value only if it is properly constituted, is functioning effectively and if its role is clearly understood by all the parties concerned. The research problem investigated stems precisely from this issue, and the paper therefore aims to analyse the effective functioning of the audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa. Methodology: The study empirically tested the audit committee practices at the largest listed companies in South Africa. This was done through questionnaires addressed to the CFOs and audit committee chairs. Findings: The study found that audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa are well established, properly constituted, have the authority and resources to effectively discharge their responsibilities and consist of members who act independently and who have the right mix of appropriate experience, financial literacy and financial expertise amongst their members. The audit committee's role was found to be generally well understood and supported by the board and the Chief Financial Officers. It was further found that the audit committees are effective in discharging their oversight responsibilities on the board's behalf, with the only real exception being their effectiveness regarding IT-related aspects. Value of research: The study provides valuable information on audit committee practices and the effectiveness of audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa. These findings can therefore serve as guidelines for best practice standards for audit committees at other companies and institutions. Conclusion: Audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa were found to be well established and according to the views of the CFOs and audit committee chairs to be functioning effectively. Further research regarding the subject field of audit committees should focus on the status and effective functioning thereof at smaller companies, unlisted entities, higher education institutions and public sector entities.

Principal–agent analysis and the study of the EU: What about the EC’s external relations?

This paper studies the influence and autonomy of the European Commission as an agent in a very particular policy area where European Studies and international relations meet: the EC's external trade policy. It presents a case study of the Commission's role within trade-related intellectual property rights-related World Trade Organisation disputes, which suggests that the principal–agent approach needs to be refined if it is to be successfully applied to the EC's common commercial policy, and possibly to other external policies as well.

Access to Intervene: The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Act 1998

The article explores the issue of access to make human rights interventions in legal proceedings by first exploring the House of Lords judgments in Re Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, where the appeal was allowed, and their contrasting approach in Robinson v Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It proceeds to consider the effect that the determination of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission's (“NIHRC”) role has had on the debate to establish a UK-wide Human Rights Commission, looking at the recent findings of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Scottish Executive's introduction of a consultation paper and the potential influence of the above on the Government's decision on whether to establish a Commission for the United Kingdom. It then examines examples of bodies making third party and amicus curiae interventions and the impact of these interventions.

October 2009 ICD-9-CM Changes

reviewed and evaluated before any final decisions are made. No decisions are made at the meetings. The ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee's role is advisory, with all final decisions made by the Director of NCHS and the Administrator of CMS. Final decisions made after the fall meeting generally become effective October 1 of the following year. Some changes for October 2009 include changing the wording from renal to kidney or vice versa. Other changes add a new code and remove the diagnosis for the new code from a previous code. Some changes were just grammatical, changing a small letter to a capital letter. New codes were added for the new H1N1 flu. There were changes made for newborn exams, for those under 28 days. New codes for ordering lab work for a physical exam and for a preop exam have been added, and those who use an electronic health record will especially find these beneficial. Some of the new, revised, and deleted codes effective October 1, 2009 include: • 272.2 Mixed hyperlipidemia • Add Combined hyperlipidemia • Add Elevated cholesterol with elevated triglycerides NEC • 272.4 Other and unspecified hyperlipidemia • Delete Combined hyperlipidemia • 274.0 Gouty arthropathy • New 274.00 Gouty arthropathy, unspecified • New 274.01 Acute gouty arthropathy ■ Acute gout ■ Gout attack ■ Gout flare ■ Podagra • New 274.02 Chronic gouty arthropathy without mention of tophus (tophi) • New 274.03 Chronic gouty arthropathy with tophus (tophi) ■ Chronic tophaceous gout ■ Gout with tophi NOS • 274.8 Gout with other specified manifestations • 274.82 Gouty tophi of other sites • Add Excludes: gout with tophi NOS (274.03) and • Add gouty arthropathy with tophi (274.03)

THE TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE: ITS REACH AND ITS ROLE IN THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

The Treasury Select Committee's role has evolved in recent years. Since the banking crisis it has undertaken important work in holding government bodies to account and in helping to influence the policy agenda.

Integration: An Ever-Closer Challenge

This article argues for closer integration to be a key part of the EU's migration policy. It accepts that migration is necessary for a prosperous Europe and looks at the role of the EU and how best to integrate immigrants. Countries' experiences and the need for better aligned policies among member states are examined. The European Commission's role in sharing experiences and best practices is considered, as well as the need for the many stakeholders involved to work together. Integration is a complex and delicate process, and ultimately the EU must be bolder in its promotion of integration if it is to benefit from migration. CEPS Working Documents are intended to give an indication of work in progress within CEPS research programmes and to stimulate reactions from other experts in the field. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the author in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which he is associated.

The International Joint Commission's Role in the United States-Canada Transboundary Air Pollution Control Regime: A Century of Experience to Guide the Future

The International Joint Commission (IJC), a bilateral institution established to manage the shared water resources of the United States and Canada, is celebrating its centennial. Despite its original mandate, the IJC also earned a prominent role in the governance of transboundary air pollution between the two nations. This article reviews the evolution of that particular function, evaluating the IJC’s role in the international transboundary air pollution regime with an eye to the challenges apparent at the dawn of its second century. The birth of the IJC and its original mandate under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty are introduced first. Next, every reference made to the IJC directly confronting air pollution are presented and analyzed. A pattern of increasing responsibility is traced from Trail Smelter through the series of three Detroit-St. Clair River Region references, then beyond the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements to the 1991 U.S.-Canada Air Quality Agreement. After evaluating those experiences, four proposals are distilled which would help to restore the IJC to the forefront of the U.S.-Canada transboundary air pollution control regime. Namely, the "precautionary principle" of international environmental law should be directly applied when drafting future references for submission to the IJC; the evidentiary value of IJC reports should be recognized in domestic courts on both sides of the border (especially in the context of the transboundary litigation provisions recorded in section 115 of the U.S. Clean Air Act and section 21.1 of the Canadian Clean Air Act); the Boundary Waters Treaty should be revised to transform IJC arbitration into an attractive alternative to litigation; and the IJC should be granted all of its familiar roles vis-a-vis the upcoming transboundary air pollution cap and trade program.

The Politics of the Lisbon Strategy: The Changing Role of the Commission

This article examines the politics of the Lisbon strategy before and after its major watershed reform in 2005, with particular attention to the role of the European Commission. Operating in an ambiguous partial delegation of power, the Commission changed from performing a strong administrative role in the 2000–04 period to performing a political role after 2005. The institutional analysis of this article combines contextual factors and internal factors for explaining this variation. The findings reveal that although internal factors play an important part in explaining change, they are highly related to contextual factors. More precisely, the ability of the Commission to unfold actively its ideological and normative leverage and unfold specific forms of procedural leverage after 2005 is highly related to the member states' decision to clarify the formal division of tasks between them and the Commission. In other words, situations of procedural ambiguity are not necessarily to the advantage of the Commission, since it does not invariably have the ability to use this ambiguity in its favour.

Administrative Integration through the Back Door? The Role and Influence of the European Commission in Transgovernmental Networks within the Environmental Policy Field

In the EU there is a trend towards developing informal networks between the European Commission and national regulatory agencies. Changes in character of the states' public administrations serve as a background for understanding these developments, a distinctive feature being the ‘agencification’ of the administrative apparatus during the last decades. This article focuses on how the role of the European Commission can be understood within these networks. The main finding is that the Commission is playing a proactive role, able to use the networks as a back road to the informal harmonization of regulatory practices. It is argued that it is able to do this mainly because it is perceived as a credible institution with expertise and overview, assets that have become even more important in EU‐27. It is argued further that the influence of the Commission is conditioned by certain factors at the national level, such as ‘noviceness’ and ‘administrative capacity’. It is concluded that it is necessary to take into account institutional features both at the national and European levels in order to understand the multifaceted role of the Commission within this specific institutional setting.

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2007–08

past year has been one of contrasts. nostalgia and excitement of the fiftieth anniversary celebration in the summer of 2007 was followed by period of tranquility throughout the fall and winter, culminating in renewed energy and enthusiasm in the spring of 2008. Future of Bibliographic Control Throughout 2007-08, attention was focused on activities related to the Library of Congress Working Group (LCWG) on the Future of Bibliographic Control, particularly drafting testimony for the working group's public hearings and preparing a detailed response to the final report On the Record on behalf of the American Library Association (ALA). In the spring of 2008, a task group appointed by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) board analyzed the recommendations in the Working Group's report and identified and prioritized those recommendations that ALCTS is best suited to address. (1) A second task group will continue the work by overseeing the implementation of these recommendations in the coming year. Non-English Access A steering committee appointed to oversee the implementation of recommendations made by the Task Force on Non-English Access began its work in the summer of 2007. work is complex and time-consuming and requires collaboration and consultation with numerous groups within ALCTS as well as in the information community at large. An implementation plan developed by the committee provides structure and focus and has helped clarify the committee's role within the community. An electronic discussion list (NonEnglish@ala.org), initially designed to facilitate discussion among steering committee members, is now open to the entire library community and has greatly enhanced the committee's visibility. Organizational Effectiveness The role of libraries is certainly in a state of transformation ... [as is] the change in library user expectations. (2) Recognizing the validity of this statement, the ALCTS Board of Directors surveyed the membership using 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don't. (3) Response was outstanding and revealed that the members consider ALCTS to be a remarkably successful organization. survey pointed out, however, that improvements in the areas of communication, effective utilization of data, and organizational adaptability are highly desirable. To address the concerns that were voiced about communication, an electronic discussion forum (alcts-eforum@ ala.org) was launched to give members and nonmembers a vehicle where topics of immediate interest could be discussed for brief periods of time. inaugural discussion, on communication, attracted 112 subscribers and indicated very clearly that perceptions about the suitability and effectiveness of the association's communication channels differ widely and there is a definite need for different forms of communication depending on the audience. Nearly two hundred subscribers have registered for the e-forum and a second discussion on the use of vendor~~~~- and publisher-supplied cataloging records generated enthusiastic responses. New discussion topics will be featured on a regular basis and will be announced in advance. After a careful review of the association's organizational structure, the Organization and Bylaws Committee submitted a ballot proposal to convert all discussion groups to interest groups. proposal was approved by an overwhelming margin, a clear indication that ALCTS members are eager to support changes that will create a more nimble organization where emerging issues and changing industry conditions can be addressed spontaneously. Legislative Affairs Throughout 2007-08, ALCTS was invited to comment on a variety of matters of national significance, ranging from the ALA Preservation Policy to increased funding for cataloging at the Library of Congress to support for shared regional depositories. …

Including Organizational Ethics in Policy Review Processes in Healthcare Institutions: A View from Canada

Expanding existing clinical ethical processes to include organizational ethics is a work in progress. Drawing from our time as members of the Ethics Committee at the IWK Health Centre in Canada, we focus on our experiences of moving organizational ethics from 'theory to practice', particularly in regard to the operational and functional challenges associated with an organizational ethics committee's role in policy development and review. Even in an institution with a relatively strong commitment to ethics and ethical practice, the inclusion of an organizational ethics perspective has raised new questions and challenges and new issues to address.

The Conscience of the Game: Baseball's Commissioners from Landis to Selig (review)

Reviewed by: The Conscience of the Game: Baseball’s Commissioners from Landis to Selig David Shiner Larry Moffi. The Conscience of the Game: Baseball’s Commissioners from Landis to Selig. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. 226 pp. Paper, $24.95. What's in store for Major League baseball? No one can be certain. For about a quarter of a century, labor disputes threatened to rupture the game. Baseball seems to have rebounded from those troubles as vibrant as ever, but doubts remain. The recent (and ongoing) steroid scandal is only the latest in baseball's seemingly endless series of crises. What will it take for the sport—or, more specifically, that corporate entity entitled "Major League Baseball"—to insure its integrity and its future? Larry Moffi doesn't claim to have a comprehensive answer to that question, but he does have some well-formulated thoughts on the subject. In his view, baseball's problems since the demise of Commissioner Fay Vincent fifteen years ago have stemmed in large part from the lack of an independent conscience of the game. Moffi believes that such a conscience can and should be part of the commissioner's role. It is in this spirit that he reviews the history of the office, noting especially when and how commissioners have and have not responded to that aspect of the position and explaining what the consequences have been for the game itself. This is not a history of the commissioner's office or a set of biographies of the men who have occupied it; Jerome Holtzman wrote that book a decade ago. Rather, Moffi intersperses chapters on four years' worth of congressional hearings on various baseball-related subjects with observations and anecdotes about each of the nine commissioners. He writes about the ways in which the commissioner's office is related to the best interests of the game, with the explicit assumption that that relationship should be much stronger than it has been in quite some time. The book devotes a number of its early pages, inevitably, to the first and most memorable commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Landis served, in the apt words of David Pietrusza, as "judge and jury." While the judge was a [End Page 126] reactionary, at least in practice, on racial matters (although Moffi intimates that history might not have come to view him that way had he lived longer), Landis occasionally demonstrated a progressive side as well, as exemplified by his ruling that an Indiana girl was eligible to play on her local American Legion team. As Moffi points out, the commissioner had absolutely no legal jurisdiction on that matter, but his moral suasion was such that no one was inclined to argue with him, then or ever. In any case, Landis served—rightly or wrongly—as the conscience of the game. No successor to Landis could hope to retain such authority, and none has. Since Moffi is ultimately more concerned with the present and future than the past, he spends more ink on current commissioner Bud Selig—"the man so many fans have learned to love to hate," as he aptly states—than on Landis or any of Selig's other predecessors. "The robe of office that Selig wears so comfortably, the very one that Landis tailored for himself, is worn and threadbare in spots, altered and realtered to suit the conscience of the eight others before him" (79). In order to insure that next bearer of that robe will serve the best interests of the game, Moffi recommends that Selig oversee a restructuring that will have the owners and players jointly elect the next commissioner, and then step aside in favor of the person who is selected to fill that post. "If you think I'm nuts, I probably am," Moffi concedes. "But I'm also right." Probably so. Even before that happens—or, to be more realistic, doesn't happen—Moffi hopes for some restoration of integrity to the commissioner's office. He was heartened by the steroid hearings of 2005 during which, according to Moffi, Selig began addressing issues in a "Landislike" manner. Until then the author was inclined to believe that Selig had "compromised both...

The European Commission's Evolving Role in Conflict Resolution

The main aim of this article is to examine the role-perception and operation of European Commission officials towards Northern Ireland and the peace process. A relative gap in the theoretical literature, until recently, on the Commission's endogenous preferences is highlighted. The main conclusion is that the European Commission's preferences towards conflict resolution in Northern Ireland have altered since 1994 and that Commission officials exhibit a greater analytical understanding and proactive approach to Northern Ireland. The cause of this change has not been socialization into `European' supranational norms, but instead has reflected the impact of British and Irish cooperation and agreement.

Technology Review Committee Plans Ahead On Construction Projects

Technology Review Committee Plans Ahead On Construction Projects

Manipulating Rules, Contesting Solutions: Europeanization and the Politics of Restructuring Olympic Airways

AbstractIn recent years much debate has been generated over the reshaping of the European airline industry and the restructuring of many of the heavily indebted national flag-carriers across the European Union. The European Commission has sought to orchestrate this reform process by the gradual break up of monopolies in air travel and its associated services and a much tighter policing of state aid practices. The EU's liberalizing agenda in air transport, however, has met with strong domestic opposition in the member states. Nowhere else has the resistance to reform been stronger than in Greece, where for a decade successive attempts to restructure or privatize Olympic Airways have yielded very limited success. By focusing, in particular, on the initiative of the Greek government in 2003 to create a new ‘Olympic Airlines’, the article examines how domestic pressures prompted the Greek government to shift away from cooperation with the Commission and invite conflict. The Greek government lost an ECJ case and both Athens and the Commission were left with a sub-optimal outcome. By linking the narrative to the conceptual literature on Europeanization and compliance, the article addresses a number of themes including: the contestation of European competition rules and the ability of national governments to manipulate them, policy entrepreneurship and complex problem-solving, as well as the Commission's role as a stimulus, but potentially also an obstacle to domestic reform.

In the best interests of baseball?: the revolutionary reign of Bud Selig

Preface. 1 Introduction: Running a League. 2 The History of the Commissioner's Role. 3 The First Commissioner: Kenesaw Mountain Landis. 4 The Undistinguished Middle I: From Chandler to Eckert. 5 The Undistinguished Middle II: From Kuhn to Vincent. 6 Bud Selig: A Lifetime in Preparation. 7 Baseball's Acting Commissioner, 1992-1998. 8 Baseball's Permanent Commissioner, 1998- . 9 Governing Baseball: Assessing the Past and Anticipating the Future. Notes. Index.

Audit Committee Authority and Effectiveness: The Perceptions of Malaysian Senior Managers

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of senior managers of Malaysian publicly listed companies on issues relating to audit committee authority and effectiveness. Questionnaire survey technique was employed to seek the respondents perceptions on seven issues, namely audit committee appoints the auditor, audit committee determines and reviews audit fees, audit committee determines and reviews the auditor's scope and duties, and audit committee's reports, meetings, charter and roles. The majority of respondents agreed that auditor would be more effective and independent if audit committee assumed the responsibility to appoint the auditor, determine and review the audit fees, and determine and review the external auditor's scope and duties. It is also found that disclosure of audit committee report, quarterly meeting and disclosure charter in annual report would enhance the perceptions of users of financial statement concerning the effectiveness of the committee.

Co-managing programme implementation: conceptualizing the European Commission's role in policy execution

This article presents a concept aimed towards a better understanding of the European Commission's role during the implementation of European policies. This constitutes a research deficit. While our knowledge about the Commission's ability to set the agenda and to influence decision-making has continuously advanced, we lag behind in understanding the Commission's behaviour in policy implementation. The article proposes a mechanism that explains Commission acting throughout policy execution on the basis of resource interdependencies. It argues that the Commission has an intrinsic motivation to overcome informational asymmetries during policy implementation in order to stabilize its ordinary functions in policy drafting and decision-making. The central theoretical argument is thus based on the vulnerability of the Commission due to its lack of a formal say in national policy execution while it is held responsible for implementation deficiencies by the other European institutions. In order to diminish that dilemma – which occurs especially when European programmes stretch over repetitive policy cycles – the Commission needs what is termed implementation management capacity (IMC).