Accountability and Democratic governance.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The duty of any government in a democracy to the people that elected it, is to be accountable for its actions. Accountability is answerability, blame worthiness, liability and the expectation of account giving in relation to governance. (Dyxtra, Clarence, 1939)
“As an aspect of governance, accountability has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, nonprofit and private (corporate) worlds. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences” (Williams, 2006).
In governance, accountability has expanded beyond the basic definition of "being called to account for one 's actions". (Richard 2000)
“The concept of accountability involves two distinct stages: answerability and enforcement. Answerability refers to the obligation of the government, its agencies and public officials to provide information about their decisions and actions and to justify them to the public and those institutions of accountability tasked with providing oversight cement suggests that the public or the institution responsible for accountability can sanction the offending party or remedy the contravening behavior. As such, different institutions of accountability might be responsible for either or both of these stages.” (R. Stapenhurst, 2008) It is frequently described as an account-giving relationship between individuals, for instance "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (p ast or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct" (Amanda, 1995).
Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting practices; in
1.1 Background of the study
The duty of any government in a democracy to the people that elected it, is to be accountable for its actions. Accountability is answerability, blame worthiness, liability and the expectation of account giving in relation to governance. (Dyxtra, Clarence, 1939)
“As an aspect of governance, accountability has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, nonprofit and private (corporate) worlds. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences” (Williams, 2006).
In governance, accountability has expanded beyond the basic definition of "being called to account for one 's actions". (Richard 2000)
“The concept of accountability involves two distinct stages: answerability and enforcement. Answerability refers to the obligation of the government, its agencies and public officials to provide information about their decisions and actions and to justify them to the public and those institutions of accountability tasked with providing oversight cement suggests that the public or the institution responsible for accountability can sanction the offending party or remedy the contravening behavior. As such, different institutions of accountability might be responsible for either or both of these stages.” (R. Stapenhurst, 2008) It is frequently described as an account-giving relationship between individuals, for instance "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (p ast or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct" (Amanda, 1995).
Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting practices; in
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