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Highly restrictive commercial lease audit clauses have come into vogue in commercial leases over the past decade or so. Their original purpose was to provide a means by which the tenant could verify that the landlord’s accounting was reasonable and proper. The reason for its popularity with landlords is that it has evolved into a tool that allows landlords to capture funds in excess of the agreed‐upon deal based on the intent of a lease contract. Audit clauses typically relate to operating expense statements ‐ sometimes referred to as either OPE (operating expense) or CAM (common area maintenance) statements. Audit clauses have also been used, but with less frequency, by landlords for other billing categories, including electricity surveys and other tenancy‐related charges. Landlords have a fiduciary responsibility to bill their tenants properly. There should be full disclosure and transparency of the detail relating to a landlord’s calculations behind any and all bills rendered to a tenant. Lease audit clauses that limit tenant rights to transparency in a landlord’s billing system should not be allowable. Lease audit clauses are viewed by savvy end‐user tenants as a landlord’s ‘licence to steal’. Time‐limited lease audit clauses motivate landlords to overcharge their tenants: once the audit time limits have passed, the landlord may capture improper payments made by trusting and unsuspecting tenants. The audit clause is generally unfair to a tenant and as such should not be allowed in leases. If one must be present in a commercial lease, then it should at least be tied to a reasonable time frame ‐ such as the local jurisdiction’s statute of limitation, or a minimum of three years. Whether or not an audit clause exists in a lease, a tenant should make every effort to have a specialist lease audit firm review the lease and billings regularly to ensure compliance with specific lease language.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09513559510077797. When citing the article, please cite: K.K. Navaratnam, Bill Harris, (1995), “Quality process analysis: a technique for management in the public sector”, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 8 Iss: 1, pp. 11 - 19.

This case describes the evolution of an entrepreneur's venture-capital fund-raising from seed-stage financing through later-round efforts. The case focuses on where the “action” is in venture finance: the exploitation of social capital by an entrepreneur and investors. Much of the teaching materials on venture finance focus on the economics of financing; while these materials provide useful information about the mechanics of valuation and how to structure venture-capital agreements, they miss the social side of venture-capital investing. The case illustrates the theoretical concept that social capital (i.e., a person's relationship to other people in society) influences venture finance. The case can be used in a class on entrepreneurship or venture finance.

Laws geared toward regulating the employment relationship cling to traditional definitions of workplaces, neglecting the domain of the home and those who work there. Domestic workers, a population of largely immigrant women of color, have performed labor inside of New York City's homes for centuries and yet have consistently been denied coverage under labor law protections at both the state and federal level. This article traces out the exclusions of domestic workers historically and then turn to a particular piece of legislation – the 2010 New York Domestic Worker Bill of Rights – which was the first law of its kind to regulate the household as a site of labor, therefore disrupting that long-standing pattern. However, the law falls short in granting basic worker protections to this particular group. Drawing from 52 in-depth interviews and analysis of legislative documents, The author argues that the problematics of the law can be understood by recognizing its embeddedness, or rather the broader political, legal, historical, and social ecology within which the law is embedded, which inhibited in a number of important ways the law's ability to work. This article shows how this plays out through the law obscuring the specificity of where this labor is performed – the home – as well as the demographic makeup of the immigrant women of color – the whom – performing it. Using the case study of domestic workers' recent inclusion into labor law coverage, this article urges a closer scrutiny of and attention to the changing nature of inequality, race, and gender present in employment relationships within the private household as well as found more generally throughout the low-wage sector.

In its passage through the Grand Committee the Food Bill is being amended in a number of important particulars, and it is in the highest degree satisfactory that so much interest has been taken in the measure by members on both sides of the House as to lead to full and free discussion. Sir Charles Cameron, Mr. Kearley, Mr. Strachey, and other members have rendered excellent service by the introduction of various amendments; and Sir Charles Cameron is especially to be congratulated upon the success which has attended his efforts to induce the Committee to accept a number of alterations the wisdom of which cannot be doubted. The provision whereby local authorities will be compelled to appoint Public Analysts, and compelled to put the Acts in force in a proper manner, and the requirement that analysts shall furnish proofs of competence of a satisfactory character to the Local Government Board, will, it cannot be doubted, be productive of good results. The fact that the Local Government Board is to be given joint authority with the Board of Agriculture in insuring that the Acts are enforced is also an amendment of considerable importance, while other amendments upon what may perhaps be regarded as secondary points unquestionably trend in the right direction. It is, however, a matter for regret that the Government have not seen their way to introduce a decisive provision with regard to the use of preservatives, or to accept an effective amendment on this point. Under existing circumstances it should be plain that the right course to follow in regard to preservatives is to insist on full and adequate disclosure of their presence and of the amounts in which they are present. It is also a matter for regret that the Government have declined to give effect to the recommendation of the Food Products Committee as to the formation of an independent and representative Court of Reference. It is true that the Board of Agriculture are to make regulations in reference to standards, after consultation with experts or such inquiry as they think fit, and that such inquiries as the Board may make will be in the nature of consultations of some kind with a committee to be appointed by the Board. There is little doubt, however, that such a committee would probably be controlled by the Somerset House Department; and as we have already pointed out, however conscientious the personnel of this Department may be—and its conscientiousness cannot be doubted—it is not desirable in the public interest that any single purely analytical institution should exercise a controlling influence in the administration of the Acts. What is required is a Court of Reference which shall be so constituted as to command the confidence of the traders who are affected by the law as well as of all those who are concerned in its application. Further comment upon the proposed legislation must be reserved until the amended Bill is laid before the House.

A series of research experiences provoked this paper. In the spring of 2003, I was asked to act as an assessor, for the Island of Ireland Seed Corn competition¹. There I came across academic start-ups (ASUs), directly linked to Irish public sector science and technology (S&T) funding. Several of the competition teams consisted of young scientists, who presented business plans. Probing demonstrated that the teams appeared to possess little understanding of the business concepts these contained. Another consistent finding was that any market reference made was focused on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries already located in the country. Intrigued by this, together with a colleague, we then began looking at ASUs, university-based funded S&T research centres and the activities of the newly created Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI).²

Presents a “detailed” account of an innovative way of serving the internal and external customer in an Australian Quality Award winning public sector service industry – South East Queensland Electricity Board (SEQEB). Presenting the principles of customer service in SEQEB, lists the six key strategies such as setting performance targets, conducting customer and staff surveys, benchmarking, sustaining customer satisfaction and providing customer advice. These strategies are used by SEQEB and are essential for establishing customer service quality in the public sector. Concludes that the implications of the principles and the strategies of customer service deployed by this service industry can be emulated in several service oriented organizations in the public sector.

An important surge in recent years has emerged in quality management initiatives in the public sector. Numerous techniques and tools are available to organizations looking to implement change through quality management. However, some organizations are unable to make informed choices using these options. Describes quality process analysis (QPA), a technique which enables the establishment of a comprehensive system for managing business processes. Seeks to answer the question “Is there a management strategy to strengthen the delivery of services in the public sector?” Presents a solution to strengthen the capacity of management to implement quality strategies to achieve organizational objectives and finally discusses the benefits of using the QPA approach.