Whence Accountability?

Abstract

In response to ever-growing concerns about accountability in African public sector establishments, the paper presents empirical findings from a study conducted in two public organisations in Botswana. Besides presenting some general comments on various aspects of financial control practices in the two organizations, the paper makes several specific observations on the nature of budgetary accountability therein. Firstly, the study revealed that a nexus of internal and external factors shaped accountability. The most influential external features on accountability were government/ministerial policy, polity and industry performance, while the design of budgetary systems and general financial control ventures informed budgetary accountability. Secondly, the study established that although budgetary systems were perceived to be the primary tool in effecting control and accountability, they were not the main means of control, nor were they effective in ensuring accountability from organisational activities and participants therein. Furthermore the linkage between budgets and other management performance criterion (e.g., performance measure systems) further inhibited the utilisation of performance systems. Thirdly, organisation participants were not content with some aspects of budget administration that had an impact on accountability processes. The most notable of these were tight fund allocation and the frequency and format of budget reports.