Current Accountability Issues
This section of the website, launched in October 2004, briefs website
visitors on important current issues in accountability.
Current news in accountability:
I. A Breakthrough in Public Accountability
in Canada
II. Accountability in a Minority
Parliament
Public accountability means the obligation of authorities (governments,
elected representatives, corporate and other governing bodies) to
explain publicly, fully and fairly, how they are carrying out responsibilities
that affect the public in important ways.
Accountability does not mean responsibility or diligence; it means
the obligation to REPORT on the discharge of the responsibilities.
Public accountability is explained in the section Public
Accountability and Concepts and Terms.
We need this public reporting for two reasons. It first of all
produces information that stakeholders (not only citizens but also
elected representatives and governing bodies in their oversight
roles) would not otherwise have but which they need if they are
to make sensible decisions. For example, citizens need the reporting
-- and its validation -- to decide what trust to place in authorities
and whether to commend, alter or halt an authority's intention.
Secondly, and equally important, the obligation to account publicly
installs a beneficial self-regulating effect on those asked to account.
(This effect is explained in the section Why
We Need Public Accountability). Reasonable standards for authorities'
public answering flow from Principles
of Accountability and are explained in Standards
for Public Answering.
The process of exacting the public answering needed and validating
it is called holding to account. As the "directing minds"
of their organizations, governing bodies of authorities such as
governments, corporations and other institutions have the obligation
both to account publicly and hold management to account within their
organizations. They must hold to account to adequately inform themselves
for their duties and also to be able to explain publicly, fully
and fairly what the authority intends, does and learns.
Public accountability is not political policy-making -- the process
of deciding whose needs or wants are to be honoured and whose are
not. As a society imperative, the public answering obligation cuts
across all political positions and ideologies and across all national
boundaries as a force for reducing unfairness within our own jurisdictions
and across the planet.
"Heads up" issues in public accountability can be
- important responsibilities for which no one is accounting to
the public, let alone adequately (Journalists and media coverage
often identify important responsibilities but don't deal with
officials' accountabilities)
- public statements that cloud the meaning of accountability,
whether inadvertently or purposefully (Examples of obfuscation
of accountability needing discussion are given in the CCA's Journal
of Public Accountability).
- examples of useful steps taken in accountability and public
answering.
Despite the absence of adequate public accountability today, we
were able to launch this section of the website on a positive note.
Accountability "horror stories" will be set out in this
section as website up-dates.
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