DAC Guidelines and Reference Series Accountability and Democratic Governance Orientations and Principles for Development


Book Description

There is growing recognition of the need for new approaches to the ways in which donors support accountability, but no broad agreement on what changed practice looks like. This publication aims to provide more clarity on the emerging practice.




Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government


Book Description

Policymakers and program managers are continually seeking ways to improve accountability in achieving an entity's mission. A key factor in improving accountability in achieving an entity's mission is to implement an effective internal control system. An effective internal control system helps an entity adapt to shifting environments, evolving demands, changing risks, and new priorities. As programs change and entities strive to improve operational processes and implement new technology, management continually evaluates its internal control system so that it is effective and updated when necessary. Section 3512 (c) and (d) of Title 31 of the United States Code (commonly known as the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA)) requires the Comptroller General to issue standards for internal control in the federal government.




Making Governments Accountable


Book Description

Over the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in public administration and public sector accounting around the world, with increasing emphasis on good governance and accountability processes for government entities. This is all driven both by economic rationalism, and by changing expectations of what governments can and should do. An important aspect of this accountability and governance process is the establishment and effective functioning of a Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a key component of democratic accountability. With contributions from renowned scholars and practitioners, and using case studies from around the world, this research-based collection examines the rationales for current roles of the PACs and explores the links between PACs and National Audit Offices. It also compares PAC practices from developing and developed countries such as Africa, Asia, Pacific islands, and Europe with both Westminster and non-Westminster models of government. This will be valuable reading for academics, researchers, and advanced students in public management, public accounting and public sector governance.




Consent of the Governed


Book Description

Jason's awe-inspiring deep dive into how the grand jury operated for centuries, and is meant to operate today, earned him the title, "political archaeologist." Simply stated, he has uncovered the most powerful tool in government accountability which has been there all along. With amazing research and his easy-to-comprehend conversational style, Hoyt delivers a knock-out punch to deep state actors and swamp creatures all over America. Politicians and government bureaucrats alike fear the grand jury as a powerful yet misunderstood independent body of We The People. Be forewarned, though. The deep state doesn't want you to read this book! Do you know how a grand jury works? Do you know why the grand jury, as a powerful independent body of We The People, makes the deep state tremble with fear? If you haven't served on a grand jury and conducted your own research, it's likely you have no idea what it can do. Presiding judges and prosecutors are most definitely not going to tell you what you're able to accomplish. The grand jury's secret proceedings and powerful investigative functions have been kept from the public's eye for over a century, and there's a reason. For example, did you know your local grand jury can audit the government from top to bottom and force any elected official or government worker to testify about their operations? In the book, Hoyt reveals an often-missed paragraph in the Florida Grand Jury Instructions that discusses the most powerful word in the Constitution where a grand jury can open an investigation on their own initiative on any topic they choose. Imagine how your government would operate if they knew at any minute they could be called to testify before a grand jury about their operations. Imagine if the government feared the people, and not the other way around. Is there such a thing as "accountability" anymore? Unfortunately, we've been trained to think the only way We The People can hold our government accountable is by waiting for the next election. That's just not the case. In the book Hoyt explores true, real, and impactful consequences in government and how the most powerful word in the Constitution, sitting right there in the fifth amendment's grand jury clause, has been hijacked. The good news is the people still have the power to act as a sword and shield, protecting against wrongful accusations by government while reaching inside the government to root out corruption. The deep state bureaucracy is out of control, but not for long. Grand juries across the country are opening investigations, looking at evidence, and holding government officials accountable. In the book, you'll discover... ...How to restore government accountability. ...How the most powerful word in the Constitution was hijacked. ...How to reach inside the government and root out corruption. - What if every single move the government made was under the watchful eye of a grand jury with real, tangible, and immediate consequences? - What if We The People could operate on an official capacity outside the branches of government and provide our "consent of the governed" on a daily basis? - What if an independent grand jury, acting on its own initiative, could reach inside our government and root out corruption with indictments? - What if the Supreme Court, as recent as 1992, said the grand jury, "...belongs to no branch of the institutional government, serving as a kind of buffer or referee between the government and the people?" - What if one of the most powerful tools to check and balance the government was already protected by the Constitution? Fortunately, Hoyt isn't proposing a new idea. Like a political archaeologist, he has uncovered what has been there all along and has worked for 800 years. The bottom line: the grand jury is feared by the deep state, establishment politicians, and the entrenched Washington, D.C. bureaucratic swamp. Read CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED to find out why!




Government Auditing Standards - 2018 Revision


Book Description

Audits provide essential accountability and transparency over government programs. Given the current challenges facing governments and their programs, the oversight provided through auditing is more critical than ever. Government auditing provides the objective analysis and information needed to make the decisions necessary to help create a better future. The professional standards presented in this 2018 revision of Government Auditing Standards (known as the Yellow Book) provide a framework for performing high-quality audit work with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence to provide accountability and to help improve government operations and services. These standards, commonly referred to as generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), provide the foundation for government auditors to lead by example in the areas of independence, transparency, accountability, and quality through the audit process. This revision contains major changes from, and supersedes, the 2011 revision.




Holding Power to Account


Book Description

This book provides a general overview of accountability, a key concept in modern democratic governance. Richard Mulgan draws on examples and analyses from the United States and the United Kingdom as well as other 'Westminster' countries. Major topics discussed include the contrast between accountability in the public and private sectors, the effects of public management reforms on accountability, accountability for collective actions, accountability in networks and the limits of accountability.




Making Politics Work for Development


Book Description

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.




Controlling Governments


Book Description

How much influence do citizens have to control the government? What guides voters at election time? Why do governments survive? How do institutions modify the power of the people over politicians? The book combines academic analytical rigor with comparative analysis to identify how much information voters must have to select a politician for office, or for holding a government accountable; whether parties in power can help voters to control their governments; how different institutional arrangements influence voters' control; why politicians choose particular electoral systems; and what economic and social conditions may undermine not only governments, but democracy. Arguments are backed by vast macro and micro empirical evidence. There are cross-country comparisons and survey analyses of many countries. In every case there has been an attempt to integrate analytical arguments and empirical research. The goal is to shed new light on perplexing questions of positive democratic theory.




Transparency in Politics and the Media


Book Description

Increasingly governments around the world are experimenting with initiatives in transparency or 'open government'. These involve a variety of measures including the announcement of more user-friendly government websites, greater access to government data, the extension of freedom of information legislation and broader attempts to involve the public in government decision making. However, the role of the media in these initiatives has not hitherto been examined. This volume analyses the challenges and opportunities presented to journalists as they attempt to hold governments accountable in an era of professed transparency. In examining how transparency and open government initiatives have affected the accountability role of the press in the US and the UK, it also explores how policies in these two countries could change in the future to help journalists hold governments more accountable. This volume will be essential reading for all practising journalists, for students of journalism or politics, and for policymakers.




'Accountability'


Book Description