Purpose

Greece had to undertake several reforms under intense policy conditionality pressures – stemming from the three financial support programs agreed between the Greek Government and the Troika – and political instability. Within this context, this study aims to analyze the role of politicians and technical assistance staff in the administrative reform of the Greek state budget.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts the approach of an extreme country-case study which is analyzed through a theoretical framework with insights from the resource dependency theory and the concept of policy conditionality. The theoretical framework is supported by documents of the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission, including the technical Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and their progress reports and is informed by the outcome of interviews with General Accounting Office executives.

Findings

While the budget reform eventually met the MoU requirements, the frequent changes at the government level, the constant renegotiations with the Troika that initiated changes to the plan and the instability of the technical assistance teams formed to support the reform contributed to important implementation delays.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the research agenda on accounting reforms during periods of financial crises by providing evidence on the role of politicians’ level of ownership and technical assistance staff contribution.

中文翻译：

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在政策条件、政治不稳定和技术支持流动的漩涡中改革国家预算

目的

希腊不得不在巨大的政策条件压力（源于希腊政府和三驾马车商定的三项财政支持计划）和政治不稳定的情况下进行多项改革。在此背景下，本研究旨在分析政治家和技术援助人员在希腊国家预算行政改革中的作用。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用极端国家案例研究的方法，通过一个理论框架进行分析，从资源依赖理论和政策条件的概念出发。该理论框架得到国际货币基金组织和欧盟委员会文件的支持，包括技术谅解备忘录 (MoU) 及其进度报告，并以与总会计师事务所高管面谈的结果为依据。

发现

虽然预算改革最终满足了谅解备忘录的要求，但政府层面的频繁变动、与三驾马车的不断重新谈判引发了对计划的修改，以及为支持改革而组建的技术援助团队的不稳定，导致了重大的实施延误。

原创性/价值

该研究通过提供有关政治家的所有权水平和技术援助人员贡献的作用的证据，为金融危机期间会计改革的研究议程做出了贡献。