A investigação desenvolvida centra-se no estudo da accountability nas Organizações Não Governamentais para o Desenvolvimento (ONGD), tendo como objectivos principais compreender a concepção de accountability para as ONGD e analisar que prioridades de accountability estabelecem, face à diversidade de stakeholders com quem interagem e às múltiplas accountabilities que lhes estão associadas. Foi possível identificar a concepção de accountability das ONGD a partir de cinco perspectivas que se articulam entre si: accountability como prestação de contas financeiras, accountability enquanto obrigação legal ou pragmática, accountability como obrigação moral, accountability baseada no princípio da transparência e accountability como uma relação entre stakeholders. Quanto às prioridades de accountability que as ONGD estabelecem, foram analisados cinco mecanismos de accountability: relatórios, avaliações, participação, auto-regulação e auditoria social; e cada mecanismo foi analisado através de três dimensões de accountability: ascendente-descendente, internaexterna, funcional-estratégica. Ancorados num estudo de natureza qualitativa, sobretudo, através de entrevistas efectuadas a três Directores executivos de ONGD verificou-se que os mecanismos referenciados privilegiam a accountability ascendente para doadores...

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi verificar o nível de Accountability Horizontal dos Relatórios de Gestão das Universidades Federais Brasileiras apresentados ao Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), como instrumento de avaliação de resultados pré-estabelecidos no orçamento da União, avaliando a adequação dos relatórios às dimensões de Accountability informacional, justificação e enforcement. Por intermédio do método de análise de conteúdo, utilizou-se de técnicas de tipologia textual da teoria linguística para classificar o nível de Accountability dos relatos das realizações da ação orçamentária 4009 dos Relatórios de Gestão das Universidades Federais em informacional (1º nível) ou em justificação (2ª nível), assim como para verificar se os normativos do TCU contribuíram com Enforcement (3º nível) para o aumento do nível de Accountability Horizontal. Análise dos RG e dos Normativos procedeu-se pela elaboração, com base na teoria revisada, e aplicação de duas matrizes: "Matriz de Análise da Dimensão Responsabilidade da Ação 4009" e a "Matriz de Análise da Dimensão Enforcement dos normativos do TCU sobre os Relatórios de Gestão das Universidades Federais". Ao final das análises, considerando os resultados da aplicação das duas matrizes...

Em um ambiente altamente competitivo, onde a disputa por clientes rentáveis torna-se cada vez mais acirrada, a crescente importância das ações de marketing como atividades estratégicas ganham destaque. Este papel traz consigo cobranças, deveres e responsabilidades a serem cumpridas em um ambiente corporativo. Torna-se natural que a alta gestão das companhias exija avaliações de desempenho pautadas pela mensuração dos resultados através de métricas bem definidas e estabelecidas. Mais que indicadores de resultados, as corporações necessitam justificar seus investimentos com maior responsabilidade de forma a garantir transparência junto aos Stakeholders, assim como proporcionar uma melhor remuneração aos Shareholders. Os princípios de Governança Corporativa, Accountability e Compliance tornam-se essenciais nas corporações que exercem as melhores práticas de mercado e utilizam métricas de desempenho como meio de prestação de contas. Àquelas que possuem orientação para mercado necessitam de métricas adequadas e específicas que meçam a satisfação do cliente visando assegurar-lhes uma entrega de valor superior frente aos competidores, pois clientes são ativos de marketing significativos e geram valor para o acionista. Esta dissertação tem por objetivo estudar métricas de desempenho...

O objetivo central desta tese é formular propostas normativas de delineamento do instituto da responsabilidade do poder político de forma a que este sirva como mecanismo de conformação de um paradigma de democracia qualificada (democratic responsiveness), cujo atributo fundamental é favorecer a correlação entre a atividade política e as expectativas e interesses da sociedade. Sob as premissas de que a qualificação democrática deve ser um objetivo fundamental no Estado Constitucional contemporâneo e de que a agregação de responsiveness ao processo político é, sem dúvida, um expediente necessário para tanto, defendemos em nossa tese a adoção de um modelo normativo em que as três facetas do instituto da responsabilidade responsibility, accountability e liability favoreçam a aproximação entre poder político e sociedade, o que é coerente com uma conformação mais substancial do princípio da soberania popular na experiência democrática, atenuando o déficit que as teorias procedimentais de democracia e a representação política independente causaram nesse campo. Valorizando o papel que a Constituição e o direito exercem em relação ao fenômeno político, apresentamos, como uma primeira proposta para um delineamento do instituto da responsabilidade do poder político que cumpra os objetivos acima colimados...

Este estudo investiga qual a contribuição do Sistema Integrado de Administração Financeira do Governo Federal (SIAFI) na promoção da accountability da Administração Pública Federal no Brasil, com base na pesquisa documental e na percepção dos usuários do sistema. O modelo de análise da accountability ocorre a partir da investigação das suas definições e dimensões, segundo levantamento do referencial teórico abrangendo o campo da administração pública e da previsão na legislação brasileira. São definidas três dimensões para descrição da accountability: transparência, prestação de contas e responsabilização. Na condução da metodologia, inicialmente essas dimensões foram tratadas pela pesquisa documental, por meio da investigação no SIAFI – Manual Web da existência de mecanismos de accountability, com a aplicação de técnicas voltadas a levantar as expressões e instrumentos do sistema que possibilitam a promoção da accountability. O resultado dessa análise evidenciou funcionalidades, que foram posteriormente escritas na forma de questões de avaliação, segundo escala Likert de 4 pontos, a fim de identificar a eficácia percebida por quatro grupos de usuários do sistema: gestor...

Este estudo teve por objetivo caracterizar a accountability da administração pública evidenciada nas práticas do Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (TCE-RS) no acompanhamento da implementação do Fundeb no Rio Grande do Sul, no período de 2007 a 2009. Abrange diretrizes e mecanismos de accountability da administração pública, com base na investigação de orientações e procedimentos exercidos pelo TCE-RS em relação a administrações públicas municipais no estado. Foi adotada uma abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa, sendo estudadas, principalmente, normas vigentes relativas ao tema, de âmbito nacional e estadual, e documentos do TCE. Elementos da análise de conteúdo serviram de referência no tratamento e no exame de dados e informações, organizando-os em categorias de análise. A fundamentação teórica envolveu os conceitos e as dimensões dos mecanismos (instrumentos institucionais) de controle externo na perspectiva da accountability política. O propósito foi discutir conceitos, dimensões e implicações da accountability na consolidação das novas democracias, buscando uma aproximação para o caso brasileiro, com vistas a situar o TCE-RS como órgão responsável pela fiscalização da administração pública na perspectiva da accountability. Nesta perspectiva...

This is a challenging time for Africa. The combined effects of the global economic crisis, the need for equitable allocation of natural resource assets, and the ever-changing balance of influence and power between the developed and developing worlds are requiring African countries to re-evaluate their governance structures. "Social accountability," as defined in this book, is an approach to enhancing government accountability and transparency. It refers to the wide range of citizen actions to hold the state to account, as well as actions on the part of government, media, and other actors that promote or facilitate these efforts. Social accountability strategies and tools help empower ordinary citizens to exercise their inherent rights and to hold governments accountable for the use of public funds and how they exercise authority. Global experience has shown that such initiatives can be catalytic and that they increasingly play a critical role in securing and sustaining governance reforms that strengthen transparency and accountability. The case studies presented in this book represent a cross-section of African countries...

This paper examines the potential role of civil society action in increasing state accountability for development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It further develops the analytical framework of the World Development Report 2004 on accountability relationships, to emphasize the underlying political economy drivers of accountability and implications for how civil society is constituted and functions. It argues on this basis that the most important domain for improving accountability is through the political relations between citizens, civil society, and state leadership. The evidence broadly suggests that when higher-level political leadership provides sufficient or appropriate powers for citizen participation in holding within-state agencies or frontline providers accountable, there is frequently positive impact on outcomes. However, the big question remaining for such types of interventions is how to improve the incentives of higher-level leadership to pursue appropriate policy design and implementation. The paper argues that there is substantial scope for greater efforts in this domain...

his volume provides advice on how to institutionalize performance-based accountability, especially in countries that lack good accountability systems. The volume describes how institutions of accountability may be strengthened to combat corruption. The volume is organized into two parts. The first part deals with public management reforms to ensure the integrity and improve the efficiency of government operations. It outlines an agenda for public management reforms and discusses the roles of e-government and network solutions in performance improvements. The second part of the volume provides advice on strengthening the role of representative institutions, such as organs and committees of parliament, in providing oversight of government programs. It also provides guidance on how auditing and related institutions can be used to detect fraud and corruption. The book highlights the causes of corruption and the use of both internal and external accountability institutions and mechanisms to fight it. It provides advice on how to tailor anticorruption programs to individual country circumstances and how to sequence reform efforts to ensure sustainability. This volume presents the latest thinking of leading development scholars on operationalizing such a governance framework. The focus of this volume is creating performance-based accountability and oversight when there is no bottom line. Each chapter addresses an important dimension of such a framework. The four chapters in part I are concerned with integrity and efficiency in public management. The nine chapters of part II are concerned with institutions and mechanisms to hold government to account.

The External Implementation Status and Results Plus (E-ISR+) system is a feedback, transparency, and accountability tool for the World Bank. E-ISR+ is intended to disclose current project information to external stakeholders, to obtain feedback from non-state players on project progress and results, and to systematically reflect external feedback in implementation reporting. In doing so, it incorporates concepts from social accountability, third-party monitoring, and participatory monitoring and evaluation to emphasize increased transparency, accountability, and stakeholder involvement in World Bank projects. The main sections of the ISR became accessible to the public, reflecting the Bank s new access to information policies and an effort to open up more information about Bank operations to the external public. Moreover, reflecting the overall trend toward more open development, the ISR process tests a new pilot effort in several African countries. E-ISR+ is designed to contribute to an improved environment for accountability generally within the host country and particularly where civil society monitoring strengthens the ability to hold government and other institutions answerable for their expected roles in a project. An improved environment for transparency and accountability is a long-term goal; it is also dependent on variable factors.

The paper first surveys the literature on accountability and establishes a categorization of the different ways by which civil society can interact with the state in order to improve accountability. It then explores in detail seven case studies of successful experiences of state-society synergy for accountability. The studies draw from a wide range of different contexts (Brazil, India, Mexico, the United States) and from a variety of different areas of government activity (corruption control, environmental regulation, poverty reduction, election monitoring, infrastructure provision, school reform, police reform). The paper concludes with a series of conceptual and practical lessons for World Bank staff on how best to initiate, design, and implement successful pro-accountability mechanisms grounded in state-society synergy. Some of the most important lessons include the need to fully institutionalize participative mechanisms, to involve societal actors from the very beginning of the design stage of the process...

Governments are being asked to become more ‘accountable’ to the legislature, to the media, to the private sector and to citizens. This paper looks at some issues in accountability, and at some mechanisms by which it can be achieved. It uses examples drawn from Solomon Islands. The word ‘accountability’ has several related meanings in English • actions be open to inspection and challenge • actions follow rules or expected standards • the financial books are in order. The South Pacific Forum Finance Ministers have adopted eight principles of ‘best practice’ for public accountability. They deal with two related kinds of accountability—financial and political. Financial accountability is a means of controlling expenditure. Where public expenditure is a large part of the economy, it becomes an important tool of economic policy. It is a way of managing large bureaucracies. Political accountability is a way of achieving democracy. Accountability may be direct, when voters ask candidates, Members of Parliament or Congress, or public servants to explain themselves. Or it may be indirect, when voters elect representatives who in turn demand accountability from public servants. Political and financial accountability have developed in different ways. Political accountability has developed with democracy. Financial accountability has developed as a neutral...

This paper, to appear in revised form in the third volume of the series on governance in Australia editied by Glyn Davis, Michael Keading, John Wanna and Patrick Weller, examines the place of accountability in the emerging framework of Australian national governance. The aim is not to map the institutional configuration of accountability agencies in government but to examine a number of basic tensions surrounding accountability and the role of accountability agencies. Although the term 'accountability' is fundamental to governance discourse, expectations of accountability vary quite markedly with different institutional and community perspectives. This paper attempts to sort through some of the more basic tensions associated with the mixed expectations of accountability by identifying how the one term of 'accountability' is often attached to mechanisms that operate at cross-purposes, to the detriment of national governance. The paper begins with a review of the conventional forms of accountability in Australian national governance and then examines three challenging arenas of accountability. First, the arena of open government associated with the agenda of the so-called new administrative law. This is a model of process-accountability which is frequently criticised as having become (i) too costly given the meagre range of benefits it has generated...

Because they are motivationally and organizationally distinct, Third-Sector organizations are capable of doing many things that neither the state nor the market sectors can do reliably or well. Markets notoriously fail in the face of positive externalities, for example. Profit-seekers prefer to free-ride rather than to contribute. But for community-oriented altruists of the Third Sector, the presence of positive externalities is merely an added inducement to contribute to such causes. Within the state sector, non-market failures notoriously arise from rentseeking, as profiteers attempt to co-opt the coercive power of the state to serve their private ends. But being voluntary organizations lacking any coercive powers, non-profits are immune to that threat as well. In short: the Third Sector works where the states and markets fail, for reasons that are by now fairly well understood. Note well, however, that what enables the Third Sector to play that role in supplementing the other two sectors is that that sector is motivationally and organizationally distinct from the other two. Recalling that fact ought make us wary of arrangements, whether of 'partnership' or 'competition', that straddle the various sectors. The worry must be that...

The purpose of this study on the enabling environment for social accountability in Mongolia is: 1) to analyze conditions that influence the ability of citizens and their organizations to promote accountability of public institutions in Mongolia; 2) to identify priority areas for policy, legal, regulatory, and institutional reforms to improve these conditions; and 3) to identify areas in which the capacity building of civil society organizations and the Government of Mongolia may be promoted to enhance social accountability for improved governance, social and economic development, and poverty reduction. The study applies a civic engagement analytical framework to assess the enabling environment: the factors and conditions that would allow Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to promote public accountability. This framework, represented by the acronym ARVIN, recognizes five enabling elements of civic engagement, namely, the ability of citizens to: Associate to further their purposes; mobilize appropriate Resources; exercise their Voice; gain access to Information that is relevant...

This economic and sector work (ESW) report presents an analytical framework of local governance through the lens of accountability. It intends to establish a methodological basis for analyzing linkages between decentralization and accountability and is based on desk reviews and interviews. The main objective of this report is to present a coherent and comprehensive approach for decentralizing countries to achieve a high degree of local government discretion accompanied by robust accountability mechanisms. This report, which is a direct response to this growing interest, presents various social accountability mechanisms that could complement public sector accountability approaches. It also highlights the operational challenges the Bank's projects on local governance reform must often confront. Accordingly, the findings of this ESW provide, in one comprehensive framework, guidance on both macro policy-making and implementation of decentralization reforms.

The World Bank has introduced a new Program for Accountability in Nepal (PRAN) to enhance the capacities of civil society and government actors to utilize social accountability approaches and tools. This political economy study seeks to inform the PRAN by identifying the strengths and opportunities as well as risks and obstacles for social accountability initiatives in Nepal. It includes recommendations for managing and addressing these issues. The study is based on primary and secondary research conducted from September 2010 to February 2011. The research methodology utilized for this study was three-fold. First, a literature review was undertaken including in-country laws, policies and regulations, as well as a range of studies and articles on issues of relevance to social accountability in Nepal. A bibliography of these materials is attached as annex one. Second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key civil society leaders, non-governmental organization (NGO) staff, journalists, academics, government officials...

A presente dissertação enquadra os processos de accountability no Terceiro Setor e explora a sua articulação com a missão e a estratégia das organizações que integram este Setor. A discussão sobre a accountability no Terceiro Setor tem sido impulsionada pela relação entre estas organizações e o Estado, e pela necessidade de se tornarem mais sustentáveis do ponto de vista financeiro e axiológico. Este trabalho teve como objetivos i) compreender como é definida a missão organizacional e de que forma é aplicada na estratégia organizacional; ii) compreender de que forma os processos de accountability são geridos, mantendo o foco na missão organizacional. Para o efeito foi realizada uma investigação qualitativa, de caráter exploratório, através de entrevistas semiestruturadas a profissionais e diretores de cinco Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social do concelho de Aveiro. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo sugerem que, pela utilização que é feita dos processos de accountability e da forma como estes revertem para a missão organizacional, estas instituições aproximam-se do modelo de accountability funcional, centrado na visibilização de resultados a curto prazo (outputs) e na relação com os principais stakeholders; e não tanto do modelo de accountability estratégica...

En la tesis analizamos las condiciones bajo las cuales, en el marco de una relación principal-agente multinivel configurada en torno a la implementación de programas de política pública e integrada por ciudadanos beneficiarios, políticos electos y burócratas designados, es posible orientar hacia el cumplimiento al último agente de esta relación (agente ejecutor), que es el implementador directo de programas en las organizaciones burocráticas estatales jerárquicas que operan a través de sucesivas delegaciones descendentes. La propuesta teórica de diseño institucional se refiere a que una vía para orientar hacia el cumplimiento al agente ejecutor es que su desempeño esté regulado por una rendición de cuentas articulada desde la accountability vertical interna (control desde la propia organización burocrática) y desde la accountability vertical social (control desde los ciudadanos como beneficiarios del programa de política pública) y además, que esta accountability se sitúe en el nivel exigitivo, es decir, que el agente esté obligado a informar y que la evaluación de su gestión sea vinculante respecto al incentivo que recibe, que es la renovación contractual, la que, por tanto, está condicionada a su desempeño. Para fundamentar lo anterior...