Importance Of Accountability In The Public Sector

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The word accountability is well related to responsibility. Accountability has multiple definition in today’s world. In public sector management, accountability is considered as one of the key indicator to have a positive image for the government and the public sector. Accountability is a form of control aimed for the public servants to not break any rules and regulations set by the government.(Funnell, Cooper, Lee, 2012) In basic words, it means to prevent any wrong doings, negative images and also to reduce the number of crimes committed in the public sector management. Accountability lies in the heart of government which the authorities have appointed public sector officers or the private parties who are involved in the public sector services would have to comply and to oblige their report and also their responsibilities for any wrong doings. It is an established relationship between the government and the appointed officers. Bovens has mentioned that authorities are the people who are responsible for their citizen(Bovens,2007 : 183). This means that the public officials need to have an enforced accountability to satisfy their citizens. There are numerous types of accountability which are bureaucracy, legal, professional, political, market and peers for the public sector (Peters, 2002). It is to make sure that a government's public services are improved. Enforcing accountability could have a number of positive benefits that could reflect to the public sector's image. Enforcing accountability could be from the media, approach a member of parliament or the sultan and force accountability. However, enforcing accountability does own constraints and difficulties which will be included in the essay.

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Public officials are a...

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...e Hari Raya with “open office”. This could slow down their performance and also distracts the public servants from performing their job efficiently. Enforcing accountability could help tackle the problem of performing jobs efficiently, but not with culture acting as a shield. In historical context, Malays are known for being a “laid back society”. This was discovered by some of the early Western discoverer which came to Brunei. The name “Melayu” in Malay language means wilt which was given by the Western discoverers. This is because the Malays are having a very slow developmental process to civilise. Moreover, according to Hall, identity or a race is constructed socially and historically. This means the Malays have a “laid back” culture which slows down growth and accountability is far from it’s light to help the Malays or the Bruneians to perform well in their job.

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