Governance Networks in the Public Sector

Ferdous Arfina Osman Ph.D
University of Dhaka

 In general, accountability means someone's
answerability to someone else for carrying out assigned
tasks or activities
 Accountability means having obligation to answer
questions regarding decisions or actions.
 In general, accountability involves the power of one
actor to make demands upon another to provide
information about, or justification for his/her actions


Public accountability implies the answerability of public officials
(both elected and appointed) to the public for accomplishing their
assigned tasks or duties and for their behavior and action.
Absence of accountability may result into the rise of corruption
through –
 misallocation of public resources;
 failure of public resources to attain desired outcomes;
 weak performance by service providers ;
 lack of awareness in part of the service beneficiaries to
"…avail themselves of services"
 (WB, 2004).

 Broadly, based on the reporting relationship,
accountability takes two forms:
 Horizontal Accountability: Routine answerability
taking place within agencies through reporting
relationships and through interactions
 Vertical accountability (between government and
citizens/ hierarchical accountability within the
organization): answerability relates directly to
transparency

• Based on the nature of answerability, accountability takes the following forms:
• i) Financial Accountability: Examination of compliance of officials and agencies with laws, regulations, and procedures for the transparent allocation, expenditure, and reporting of financial resources
• Ii) Political/democratic accountability: responsiveness to citizens and the fulfillment of public trust
• Iii) Performance accountability: accounting for performance in the light of agreed-upon performance targets. Its focus is on the services, outputs and results of public agencies and programs.

 Current complex society needs a shift from a traditional top-
down way of problem solving to a more horizontal cooperative
approach, called network
 The new approach of governance focusses on networks
suggesting that state power is widely dispersed and the actors
need to coordinate their actions and strategies in order to solve
the public problems.
 Rise of markets and networks has disrupted the traditional
lines of accountability