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Importance of public accountability
The role of bureaucracy in public administration
Importance of public accountability
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The word accountability is well related to responsibility. Accountability has multiple definition in today’s world. In public sector management, accountability is considered as one of the key indicator to have a positive image for the government and the public sector. Accountability is a form of control aimed for the public servants to not break any rules and regulations set by the government.(Funnell, Cooper, Lee, 2012) In basic words, it means to prevent any wrong doings, negative images and also to reduce the number of crimes committed in the public sector management. Accountability lies in the heart of government which the authorities have appointed public sector officers or the private parties who are involved in the public sector services would have to comply and to oblige their report and also their responsibilities for any wrong doings. It is an established relationship between the government and the appointed officers. Bovens has mentioned that authorities are the people who are responsible for their citizen(Bovens,2007 : 183). This means that the public officials need to have an enforced accountability to satisfy their citizens. There are numerous types of accountability which are bureaucracy, legal, professional, political, market and peers for the public sector (Peters, 2002). It is to make sure that a government's public services are improved. Enforcing accountability could have a number of positive benefits that could reflect to the public sector's image. Enforcing accountability could be from the media, approach a member of parliament or the sultan and force accountability. However, enforcing accountability does own constraints and difficulties which will be included in the essay.
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...e Hari Raya with “open office”. This could slow down their performance and also distracts the public servants from performing their job efficiently. Enforcing accountability could help tackle the problem of performing jobs efficiently, but not with culture acting as a shield. In historical context, Malays are known for being a “laid back society”. This was discovered by some of the early Western discoverer which came to Brunei. The name “Melayu” in Malay language means wilt which was given by the Western discoverers. This is because the Malays are having a very slow developmental process to civilise. Moreover, according to Hall, identity or a race is constructed socially and historically. This means the Malays have a “laid back” culture which slows down growth and accountability is far from it’s light to help the Malays or the Bruneians to perform well in their job.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines accountability as: “the quality or state of being accountable; especially: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one 's actions. Accountability is one the most important aspects in the military and civilian life style. Holding Marines accountable for their actions and having every Marine and piece of gear assigned to you accounted for is required at all times. It ensures the safety and stability of all the Marines.
Accountability….What does it mean? Well this past month e lost two soldiers who are a part of our unit and voice of our unit pass away. Accountability is important and should not be taken lightly… A soldier lost his life a couple weeks ago, due to lack of accountability, and it hurt a lot of people. For so many reasons accountability is important, for example. Knowing where your soldiers are at all times helps to know what they’re doing, and what their interest are doing so. In case something happens and someone needs t know where a soldier is accountability comes into play. Army Regulation 600-20 IAW Discipline. Why is discipline so important? Because to be accounted for is a part of disciplinary actions.
Introduction Based on data compiled over a five-year period, Bustin (2014) discovered that the greatest threat that businesses faced in trying to accomplish and maintain a high level of performance, was the lack of accountability. This information he was able to glean from his interviews with over 3500 executives worldwide. He concluded that most businesses were not operating effectively, because of accountability issues. Accountability therefore, is a critical component in the efficient operation of a business, and therefore the leadership of every business needs to develop a culture of accountability within the organization. In order to facilitate this process, Bustin (2014) compiled the principles and practices that he gleaned from the executives he interviewed, and from those evolved his Seven Pillars of Accountability.
According to Kettl (2015) systems have four elements for holding public administrators accountable, namely; standing setting, voluntary compliance, sanctions, and monitoring. He further states that accountability is a matter of balancing internal norms with external processes. Presidents come with their policies and influence government to be efficient, effective and expeditious in service delivery. They minimize unnecessary government overspending and cut the budget where necessary. They even apply the common phrase “doing more with less” when they want more production by employing less resources.
The private sector is composed of organisations that are privately owned and are not part of the government, corporations and partnerships, for example: retail shops and local business. The private sector progresses expeditious because it promotes quality to win over customers, which will lead to a greater chance of them achieving the objective of making profit. Whereas the public sector is composed of companies, that are controlled and maintained by the government. There are homogeneous attributes between the public and private sector, yet they are to a great extent exceeded by the number of differences and this essay will discuss the major differences between these sectors, which are: transparency, customer feedback, basis of
Accountable and transparent to the public it is serving is a key feature of a public manager. These two concepts greatly measures the effectiveness of government. Being accountable simply implies being answerable to your actions as a public servant. Transparent on the other hand clearly implies the act of being open to the people. Organizations should abide by law and directives issued by government. This provides accounts of their compliance (Rainey, p 105). An effective government is one that is both accountable and transparent. “Public agencies receive request for helpful, reasonable, and flexible responses to the needs of client, their activities are public business, and citizens and the media demand relative openness to scrutiny” (Rainey,
Ministerial Accountability Under the UK Constitution “The prerogative has allowed powers to move from Monarch to Ministers without Parliament having a say in how they are exercised. This should no longer be acceptable to Parliament or the people.” Discuss whether ministerial accountability is adequately addressed under the UK constitution The Royal Prerogative has allowed a wide array of discretionary powers to be delegated from the Monarch to ministers without a need to seek parliamentary approval. This system is both unjust and undemocratic as it leaves a number of largely unchecked powers in the hands of a privileged few. These powers, including the ability to ratify treaties, declare war, regulate the civil service and appoint ministers, have a profound effect on the lives of the citizens of the United Kingdom and therefore it is necessary for them to be regulated by Parliament, the democratically elected body of the British people.
One of the aspects of bureaucracy is that it creates fixed division of labor. The benefit of fixed division of labor is that it allows humans to become specialized at what they do as they can learn from their experiences and gain more in depth knowledge on the topic. When individuals work with similar environmental uncertainties on a constant basis they obtain a better understanding of how to deal with those uncertainties. They often use their experiences to deal with the situation in ways that worked for them previously. In addition when there are assigned jobs, it is easier to hold specific individuals accountable for their tasks. This allows the organization to quickly find who caused a certain problem and fix it. Accountability leads to people being more likely to work in the best interest of the organization, as they know that there could be repercussions for not doing so. People will use the techniques that they have previous experience with and that they know work in order to not make a mistake and be held accountable. And so they will work in a stable and predictable manner. When the people in the organization work in a stable and predictable manner the organization is likely to work in the same way. Accountability also helps in solving problems and quickly getting the ...
The focus is on the issues of police accountability in modern society, and in particular why their accountability is more important than other professions. This is not surprising considering the amount of power and discretion police officers have, and the level of trust that the public holds with these civil servants. Police officers accountability is the biggest thing in their profession which has been an issue of concern they have to be accountable to the police department who want the officer to be an effective and responsible person, to people in the community who have best expectation from an officer and being accountable to themselves for their acts. An ordinary citizen of a country cannot obtain the powers that police officer’s have.
Accountability mean taking responsibility for your actions and being answerable to others for those actions.
In the 1999 elections for the first time in Malaysia’s history opposition parties united under Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front or BA). Party Keadilan is a small multi-ethnic party formed in 1999 by activists in the reformation movement. Besides, PAS (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party) had provided strong competition for UMNO. Another major ...
Accountability in the workforce holds each employee responsible for his or her actions. This can include getting to work on time, maintaining a work schedule, and being able to fulfill the requirements of the job.
Public Administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies for the attainment of set goals and objectives that will be to the benefit of the general public. Since Public Administration involves taking decisions that affect the use of public resources there is often the question of how to utilize public resources for maximum public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and to its success. This paper seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration.
Asian Affairs, 33. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, K. M. (2012). New Public Management: Emergence and Principles. BUP JOURNAL, 1.
Ohemeng, Frank, L.K. and Leone, Robert P. “Should Public Sector be RUN like a Business.” Approaching Public Administration. Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, (2011), P. 1-362.