Accountability

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Accountability In Bangladesh the assumption in the context of democracy, is that the civil servants work for the people. But the problem of locating accountability therefore becomes acute because of the nature of the job performed and power exercised by the civil servants. Today they are no longer confined to the job of implementing the policies and executing the laws framed by the legislature. Now they consciously make laws and even adjudicate laws. In fact the laws made by the legislature lay down only the broad objectives, and the task of providing the details of making rules, regulations and bye-laws for filling up the gaps left in the legislation, is given to the administrators in order to facilitate the process of executing the laws. Thus, “the problem of keeping watch over the execution of laws has today grown into the more complex task of exercising control over policy formulation and policy implementation. The meaning of the concept of administrative accountability has, therefore, been expanded and consequently its dimensions have increased.” These days various expressions like responsiveness, responsibility, accountability and control are used to ensure the subservience of public servants. The word Responsiveness means “the state of being responsive” i.e. answering or replying. In Bangladesh the citizens expect civil servants to be responsive to their requests and demands. A citizen who asks something of a government has the right to expect a response and to be treated as a legitimate source of demands. In fact responsiveness is a procedural requirement for good government. The other word Responsibility implies that the civil servants will adhere to the explicit and implicit values of proper administration and policy. Responsible public servants know the law and have convictions about the proper administration of their programmes. Expertise and law thus become central to the working of civil service. Administrative accountability generally means making the civil servants answerable for their actions. Administrative accountability has to be understood in relation to making of public policies and their implementation. It means accountability of those administrators who in some ways or the other contribute to the decision making process. And this accountability is to the political system as a whole. In general, the public officials are found to be guilty of non-feasance, malfeasance and overfeasance. -Nonfeasance means that civil servants have not done what law or custom requires them to do owing to laziness, ignorance or want of care for their charges or corrupt influence.

2 -Malfeasance means that a duty is carried out with waste and damage because of ignorance, negligence and technical incompetence. -Overfeasance occurs when a duty is undertaken beyond what law and custom oblige empower---it may occur out of dictatorial temper, vanity or genuine public spirited zeal. The public officials must be held accountable for any of these three activities.

TOOLS OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY It is necessary and essential in the interest of democracy as well as efficiency and effectiveness that good and proper tools or controls to check civil servants must be devised, generally controls are of two types – external and internal. According to Prof. Finer, the best way to enforce accountability is to develop institutions that vigorously monitor the actions of public bureaucracy and punish those guilty of maladministration. In the absence of other controls, such as profit motive, policy makers must monitor the performance of public administrators via formal mechanisms.3 Among the two controls executives responsibility to the legislature, legislative surveillance, judicial review, audit system, financial advisory system in ministries, judicial system, ombudsman etc. are examples of external formal controls. The internal controls of formal type are secured through organizational devices like hierarchy supervision, control, span of control, unity of command, inspection, tours etc. These are in practice, reinforced and supplemented by informal external devices such as mass media, political parties, interest groups, political and electoral process, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) etc. existing in the society. Beside this on the other hand, Carl Friedrich opines that inculcation of appropriate values among administrators serves as the major check on the bureaucracy.

Forms of accountability : Accountability although has many facets but they are inter-related. It may be formal i.e. institutionalized or informal i.e. democratic and ethical. Accountability may also take the forms like political accountability, administrative accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability etc.

Ways to ensure accountability : In addition to the formal structures and informal modes prevalent in different nations to enforce

3 accountability in public service, a few more are suggested by scholars. Some of them are as follows : 1. Representative Bureaucracy : In order to ensure that administrators remain responsive to the needs of the people, some scholars have pointed to the potential importance of representative bureaucracy. In fact this view holds that democracy will be served if bureaucrats mirror certain key characteristics of society. This view was first developed by Kingsley which grew out of recognition of the inadequacy of the traditional legal institutional controls for insuring administrative accountability in a modern state. 2. Positive Content : Administrative accountability must be imparted positive content. In Bangladesh at present accountability is devalued. It must become sensitive to reward and punishment and must not remain one-sided as it is now. 3. Administrative reforms : Administrative accountability is performance and efficiency based and result oriented, so in a responsible system of government rules and procedures must be simplified to enable public servants to avoid delays caused by unnecessary procedures. Thus delegation, decentralization, devolution and deconcentration are vital to accountability. So is the need for reform in personnel administration, especially training, placement, promotion, performance appraisal etc. Infact administrative reform is among the pre-requisites to a system of effective accountability. 4. Innovative Practices : Today innovative practices like sun-set legislation, freedom of Information Act, Citizens Charter etc. should be adopted to enhance accountability. In brief the concept of sun-set legislation implies that rules and regulations should be made for limited periods, and after the expiry of that period the laws or rules should cease to operate unless renewed. This will also necessitate review of rules and regulations periodically to check their continued validity. Accountability demands openness in the conduct of public business. The citizen charters are not expounding new legal rights or obligations but rather stipulating existing rights and detailing good practice, which exists in some cases and should, in the government’s view be the norm. 5. Public Participation : The direct involvement of public in the administrative process constitutes one of the major efforts to enforce administrative accountability. Generally in developing countries like Bangladesh public participation consists of three ways that is : (a) Consultation throughout the planning process, (b) Public representation on decision-making boards; and (c) Community control over funds and expenditure.

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However, it would fail to ensure administrative accountability unless such participation educates the citizens and be informed about the broader socioeconomic characteristics of the society itself. The idea of public participation is to expand the democratic basis of administrative action. Therefore the desire for accountability must be weighed against responsiveness and the ability to achieve policy ends efficiently and effectively.

METHODS OF ACCOUNTABILITY Control over public administration is an essential feature of accountable and responsible administration. Lord Acton’s insightful remark “Power corrupts and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely” appears to have universal validity. Now to check it and make it accountable, certain safeguards are needed to make the administration accountable to the people through some specific devices and methods. Here in brief we shall discuss some of the methods of accountability as follows :

(1) Legislative accountability : The Legislature or Parliament

plays an important role in making administration accountable. In parliamentary countries of which India is one, the executive is responsible to the legislature. It can hold office only so long as it enjoys the confidence, i.e., the majority support of the legislature. There are several means through which legislature exercises control over public administration. Some of the important means of this method are such as questions, discussions and debates, motions and resolutions on specific administrative actions. There are financial control through budget and parliamentary committees.

(2) Executive accountability : Executive control is an internal

control over administration exercised either by the superior over the subordinate within the chain of administrative hierarchy or by other parallel agencies in the executive branch of the government. Administrative structure is hierarchical in nature and so one level controls the other and none is outside the chain of command. The executive accountability and control is exercised in many ways. Most of them are formal provided by the laws of the country but some of them are informal depending upon the good sense of the civil servants. The method of internal control is different such as Political or Ministerial control is the cardinal principle of Parliamentary democracy. There are number of techniques and devices such as inspection, supervision, reports etc. through which the head quarters administration controls the field agencies.

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(3) Electorate accountability : As we all know that every popular government is ultimately responsible to the people or, to be more precise, the electorate which by its votes can make and unmake it. Apart from the general mass of voters, the various organized interests like industrialists, associations, religious groups etc. constantly exert pressure on government and administration to mould their policies and acts in their favour. Thus, in those countries where institutions of direct democracy exist, popular control manifests itself directly through initiative, referendum direct elections of officials, and recall.

(4) Professional bodies accountability : In every country officials of professional categories such as doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, computer analysts etc. are also responsible to their professional bodies like the bar councils or medical councils for maintaining the minimum standards of these professions. And if they are guilty of unprofessional conduct, even their names may be removed by these professional bodies from their approved lists or register, thus disqualifying them (persons) from engaging in that profession any longer.

(5) Judicial accountability : In a democratic country, the judicial accountability through Judiciary restricts the discretion and arbitrariness of both the executive and administrative agencies; safe guards of rights and liberty of the citizens; helps in redressal of the grievances of the citizens; curbs corruption in government and administration and can declare ultra-virus the acts of the government and administration is case they exceed their jurisdiction. So, if some administrative action causes loss to the citizen, he may knock at the door of the Judiciary for redressal of his grievances. Finally, administration is subject to judicial control exercised by the Courts. Looked at from the point of view of the citizens whose liberties and rights they are intended to protect, the controls exercised by the courts are called judicial remedies for the citizens against official excesses or abuse of power, are the two faces of the same coin.

(6) Ombudsman accountability : As a good government must provide a citizen an opportunity of seeking redress from arbitrary actions of civil servants, to look into the problems of individual citizens who feel aggrieved by the decisions of civil servants.

(7) Political Parties, Interest Groups, Press and Public Accountability:

6 In the Parliamentary democracy, political parties and interest groups too play an important role in expressing public opinion and they check the arbitrary use of powers and actions of the executive along with administrative executive. Press also plays an important role to enforce administrative accountability through editorials, news regarding administrative irregularities, mismanagement, inefficiency, delays and corrupt practices of the civil servants. Even public get their grievances ventilated through columns of newspapers.