Public accountability
LINK: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 21 October 2007 Issue
Accountability is an ethical concept. It simply means being responsible to someone or for some activity.
They say that originally the word was an extension of the Latin word accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn derived from putare (to reckon) and commonly used in the money lending systems that first developed in ancient Greece and later in Rome.
As it permeates human conduct, accountability connotes the existence of an obligation or a duty demanded by some social force. It can be moral, which is usually self-imposed based on the norms and culture embraced by the actor. It could also be legal when compelled by some legitimate or recognized authority. Most, if not all, of existing legal accountabilities however are premised on moral accountability. Thus, the finer distinction is hardly noticeable.
Within the framework of a global consensus leaning highly towards the promotion and protection of democratic institutions, accountability is a centerpiece concern or issue in public governance. And this has reference to the need for those who govern to be highly accountable to their constituency.
Public accountability is a legal duty because it is always defined by a set of statutes or duly promulgated rules obviously to make it obligatory. This duty always carry with it financial accountability, performance accountability and institutional or structural accountability. In some jurisdiction or entities, accountability even extends to individual behavior or conduct for the obvious reason that they affect or jeopardize the strict observance of a legal duty.
Experts say that public accountability has two dimensions: answerability (for power holders to explain or justify their actions) and enforceability (having reference to the system or mechanism of penalties and punishment when accountability is breached). Otherwise, accountability becomes useless.
In order to attain these dimensions, a policy of ‘transparency’ is vital. Transparency can be in the sense of voluntary or full disclosure of power-holders or securing the right of the constituency or the stakeholders of their right to information.
And since public accountability is ingrained as a social contract, it is very difficult for any illegitimate rule to be entrusted with this obligation. From the entire gamut of the public accountability framework rests public trust and credibility.
Without public trust and credibility, the capacity and fitness to govern is severely affected and becomes highly questionable, a case of breaching the social contract.
The Philippine Constitution no less devoted an entire article on public accountability of government functionaries the essence of which is expressed in this wise: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”
By simply looking at the frustrating developments in Philippine politics since this mandate was enshrined in the fundamental law, it seems to be more of a motherhood statement than an honest to goodness imprimatur. Who would disagree that every single duty referred to in the quoted provision from the context of structural, financial, structural and individual accountability is being violated with impunity?
Because the constitutional demand for public accountability is not self-executing, the country had good laws against corruption and on ethical standards. But they either become dead for lack of political will to enforce or simply become unjust because of unfair* application. Public office is a most sought career because it is the surest path to fame, power and wealth. How they live their lives is ostentatious.
Transparency in the country’s public governance is a mere pigment of the imagination. The right of the people to public information is a tale. Recent events calling for the invocation of the so-called ‘executive privilege’ even make the tale appalling.
Public accountability meant ‘being responsible’ in the normal scheme of things. It meant ‘taking responsibility’ in the ideal sense. But in the Philippines, it seems that public accountability is neither.
NOTE: *the modifier from the original text was changed because for some unexplainable reason the original word used by the author cannot be recognized by the write-post board.
Category: Note Verbale |
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