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June 2016

ETHICS, GOVERNANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY

By Jinal Sanghvi
Shraddha Bathija
Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 2 mins
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ACCOUNTABILITY

In ethics and governance, accountability is answerability, blameworthiness, liability and the expectation of accountgiving. As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, non-profit and private (corporate) and individual contexts Political accountability is the accountability of the government, civil servants and politicians to the public and to legislative bodies such as a congress or a parliament.

Within an organization, the principles and practices of ethical accountability aim to improve both the internal standard of individual and group conduct as well as external factors, such as sustainable economic and ecologic strategies. Also, ethical accountability plays a progressively important role in academic fields, such as laboratory experiments and field research.

Internal rules and norms as well as some independent commission are mechanisms to hold civil servants within the administration of government accountable. Within department or ministry, firstly, behavior is bound by rules and regulations; secondly, civil servants are subordinates in a hierarchy and accountable to superiors. Nonetheless, there are independent “watchdog” units to scrutinize and hold departments accountable; legitimacy of these commissions is built upon their independence, as it avoids any conflicts of interests. The accountability is defined as an element which is part of a unique responsibility and which represents an obligation of an actor to achieve the goal, or to perform the procedure of a task, and the justification that it is done to someone else, under threat of sanction.

RTI Clinic in June 2016: 2nd, 3rd, 4th Saturday, i.e. 11th, 18th and 25th, 11.00 to 13.00 at BCAS premises.

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