Adam Smith Business School

Professor Shahzad Uddin, University of Essex

"When Public Budgeting and Reforms Meets Settler Colonial Power and Neoliberalism: A Case of Palestine"
Tuesday, 11 June 2024. 12:00-13:30
Room 282, Hot House, Adam Smith Business School & PGT Hub

Abstract

This paper focuses on public budgeting and its reforms in Palestine. In peacebuilding and state-building projects, donor communities promoted New Public Financial Management (NPFM). We aim to evaluate how these reforms in public budgeting in Palestine have been in disarray in the context of huge uncertainty over revenue controls, population and land controls, asset destructions, and wars. Previous studies have examined budgeting in uncertain contexts. Our empirical examples demonstrate extreme conditions such as suspensions of revenues seven times by Israel since 1993, two major wars, uprisings, and severe controls of population and lands by the external party i.e., Israel that have diminished any possibility of reforms being successful in Palestine.

We draw on settler colonial studies to understand the nature of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and its implications on public budgeting and reforms. We witnessed attempts by Palestinians to achieve international recognition immediately crashed by Israel’s suspensions of revenues to Palestine, leading to budget failures and financial crises. These examples illuminate how budgeting reforms face an uphill battle in the context of settler power. Reforms that were implemented to address corruption and inefficiencies never had any chance to bring about the necessary changes.

Bio

Shahzad Uddin is a Professor of Accounting and Director of the Centre for Accountability and Global Development Director at Essex Business School, University of Essex. Shahzad Uddin has been awarded the British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) 'Distinguished Academic Award', 2022. Notably, Shahzad Uddin is the founding editor of the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies (JAEE). His research covers a diverse range of topics, including management accounting control, public sector accounting, governance, and sustainability. He is recognized for his studies conducted within non-Western organizational and cultural contexts. His research findings have been published in prestigious journals spanning disciplines such as Accounting, Sociology, Philosophy, and Development Studies. Furthermore, Shahzad's academic contributions have been acknowledged by the British Sociological Association and the Labor and Employment Relations Association in the United States.

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First published: 18 March 2024