Slajd 1

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Accountability of Public Administration A
presentation I gave in support of my speech
titled O pojeciu rozliczalnosci (accountability)
administracji publicznej at the conference for
Responsibility of and in Public Administration in
Lódz on November 21, 2012.
dr. hab. Jerzy SupernatInstitute of
Administrative Studies University of Wroclaw
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Accountability
The Bible Revised Standard Version. The Gospel
according to John, 1, 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.
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• Accountability
• a standard of conduct in public life
• a standard by which administrators are to be
  judged
• an organizing principle of public administration
• one of the core values of democratic governance
• a truly/key democratic value
• an universal democratic principle
• a sign of growing democracy assertiveness
• a serious step in progression towards democratic
  government
• the ultimate manifestation of democracy
• a legitimating principle of contemporary
  governance system
• a good governance principle/tool/value

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The term accountability is equivocal
(ambiguous) one!!
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• Accountability
• A political concept in which representative
  government and political responsibility (key
  elements of democratic legitimacy) are combined
• the vocabulary of counting, accounting and
  accountancy
• public audit and the mediaeval office of
  Comptroller and Auditor-General
• financial accountability and public audit
• constitutional (limited) government and formal
  public accountability in financial affairs
• public administration as a system
• of public management
• audit as a centerpiece of the machinery by which
  accountability
• is established
• By linking accountability to audit and public
  management, the term is made more objective,
  while at the same time its field of operation is
  extended from the realm of politics into
  financial affairs and public administration.

Responsibility and accountability.
Odpowiedzialnosc i odpowiedzialnosc? Odpowiedzialn
osc i rozliczalnosc? One can single out an
element of subjectivity in the term
responsibility, whilst the term accountability
may be read objectively as referring to
narration the obligation to give an account of
events.
accountability rozliczalnosc
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Accountability
Accountability and the European Union
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
The European Union is a polity in which political
ideas must be blended. It has by and large to
accommodate the traditions of its members and to
proceed so far as possible in accordance with the
general principles common to the laws of the
Member States. Yet languages as French, German,
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Polish have no
exact equivalent of accountability and do not
distinguish semantically between responsibility
and accountability. If there is growing
familiarity with the term accountability then
this is due to experience with the Anglo-Saxon
tradition. Is accountability an Anglo-American
arriviste on the political-legal scene without
resonance in other European systems? Accountabilit
y is a portmanteau word into which is packed a
bundle of notions pertinent to modern systems of
government. When borrowed or transplanted, the
word may acquire new and unexpected meanings.
Pierre Avril sees the term accountability as
borrowed by the French to encapsulate a cluster
of ideas contained within the notion of
responsabilité devant le peuple this would
lend the term the dual meaning of accounting
for ones actions and taking into account or
responsiveness to the peoples view. And the
French word responsabilite combines political
accountability with legal liability, lending a
further dimension to the term.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability

• Damian Chalmers, Adam Tomkins, European Union
  Public Law, Cambridge 2007
• Accountability in the European Union
• Accountability is concerned with subjecting the
  decisions and actions of institutions (and,
  usually, executive institutions such as the
  Commission and the Council) to ex ante and ex
  post scrutiny. () it comprises three main
  elements
• the institutions must explain what they are
  doing/or what they are seeking to
• the institutions must make themselves
  politically liable for what they do and propose
  to do
• the institutions must take responsibility for
  what they do
• The first element is a calling to account the
  second and third a holding to account.
• D. Ch., A. T. Neither the institutions being
  called or held to account, nor those to whom they
  are accountable, need necessarily be democratic.
  There is therefore no necessary link between
  accountability and democracy. They may overlap,
  for sure, but the securing of accountability
  within the European Union will not necessarily
  make the European Union more democratic.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
1
Committee of Independent Experts First report on
allegations regarding fraud, mismanagementand
nepotism in the European Commission, March 15,
1999 1.5.4. The rules of conduct which are part
of the common core of 'minimum standards in
public life' () may be defined as follows
() - behaving () in accordance with the
principles of accountability and openness to the
public, which implies that, when decisions are
taken, the reasons for them are made known, the
processes by which they were taken are
transparent and any personal conflicting
interests are honestly and publicly acknowledged.
Only by respecting those standards will it be
possible for holders of high office to have the
authority and the credibility enabling them to
offer the leadership which they are required to
give compare with the 'Seven principles of
public life' as set out in the first report on
Standards in Public Life of the UK Nolan (now
Neill) Committee.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
2
9.3.3. The principles of openness, transparency
and accountability (see above, para. 1.5.4.), are
at the heart of democracy and are the very
instruments allowing it to function properly.
Openness and transparency imply that the
decision-making process, at all levels, is as
accessible and accountable as possible to the
general public. It means that the reasons for
decisions taken, or not taken, are known and that
those taking decisions assume responsibility for
them and are ready to accept the personal
consequences when such decisions are subsequently
shown to have been wrong.

• objective accountability explanations must be
  made if things go wrong
• subjective accountability personal acceptance
  of responsibility
• sanctions acceptance of personal consequences
• For the first time in EU public administration
  the term accountability was used in its true
  Anglo-American sense and presented as a standard
  by which administrators are to be judged.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
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9.4.25. The responsibility of individual
Commissioners, or of the Commission as a body,
cannot be a vague idea, a concept which in
practice proves unrealistic. It must go hand in
hand with an ongoing process designed to increase
awareness of that responsibility. Each individual
must feel accountable for the measures he or she
manages. The studies carried out by the Committee
have too often revealed a growing reluctance
among the members of the hierarchy to acknowledge
their responsibility. It is becoming difficult to
find anyone who has even the slightest sense of
responsibility. However, that sense of
responsibility is essential. It must be
demonstrated, first and foremost, by the
Commissioners individually and the Commission as
a body. The temptation to deprive the concept of
responsibility of all substance is a dangerous
one. That concept is the ultimate manifestation
of democracy.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability

• Mismanagement/Maladministration
• Committee of Independent Experts
• Mismanagement () refers in general to serious or
  persistent infringements of the principles of
  sound administration and, in particular, to acts
  or omissions allowing or encouraging fraud or
  irregularities to occur or persist. Such
  infringements may be committed intentionally but
  will consist, more frequently, in negligent
  behaviour, or lack of care, in the exercise of
  public functions.
• The European Ombudsman
• Maladministration means poor or failed
  administration. This occurs if an institution
  fails to do something it should have done, if it
  does it in the wrong way or if it does something
  that ought not to be done. Some examples are
• administrative irregularities
• unfairness
• discrimination
• abuse of power
• lack or refusal of information
• unnecessary delay.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
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European Principles for Public Administration,
Sigma Papers 1999, No. 27, OECD
Publishing. Although the expression and concepts
of administrative law () differ from one
national system to another, it is possible to
agree upon a common definition of administrative
law as being the set of principles and rules
applying to the organization and management of
public administration and to the relations
between administration and citizens. () These
administrative principles are not simply ideas
based on goodwill they are embedded in
institutions and administrative procedures at all
levels. Actors in the public sphere are legally
obliged to comply with these legal principles,
which must be upheld by independent control
bodies, systems of justice and judicial
enforcement, parliamentary scrutiny, and by
ensuring opportunities for hearing and redress to
individuals and legal persons.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
2
Particularly important principles set forth in
the jurisprudence of the European Court of
Justice are, among others the principle of
administration through law the principles of
proportionality, legal certainty, protection of
legitimate expectations, non-discrimination, the
right to a hearing in administrative
decision-making procedures, interim relief, fair
conditions for access of individuals to
administrative courts, non-contractual liability
of the public administration. If we attempt to
systematize the main administrative law
principles () we could distinguish the following
groups 1) reliability and predictability (legal
certainty) 2) openness and transparency 3)
accountability and 4) efficiency and
effectiveness. Other principles can be derived
from these.
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Accountability
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Generally, accountability means that one person
or authority has to explain and justify its
actions to another. So in administrative law it
means that any administrative body should be
answerable for its actions to other
administrative, legislative or judicial
authorities. Accountability also requires that no
authority should be exempt from scrutiny or
review by others. It can be effected through many
different mechanisms, including review by the
courts, appeal to a superior administrative body,
investigation by an ombudsman, inspection by a
special board or commission, and scrutiny by a
parliamentary committee, among many others.
Accountability is instrumental in showing
whether principles like the rule of law,
openness, transparency, impartiality, and
equality before the law are respected.
Accountability is essential to ensure values such
as efficiency, effectiveness, reliability, and
predictability of public administration. A
particular characteristic of accountability in
the domain of administrative law is that it is
ensured through a complex array of quite formal
procedures. There is not an abstract
accountability but very concrete and legally
defined matters to account for, through a set of
very specific procedures.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
OECD is by no means the only international
organizations to concern itself with
accountability and good governance. The World
Bank (other examples are the International
Monetary Fund IMF and the World Trade
Organization WTO) has also played a leading
part in establishing accountability as a good
governance principle, adopting the concept as one
for evaluating the quality of governments. It
views the accountable administration of public
funds and an independent auditor responsible to a
representative legislature as essential
components of good governance.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
UK
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
Colin Turpin, Adam Tomkins, British Government
and the Constitution, Cambridge 2007 The authors
list accountability alongside democracy,
parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law and
separation of powers as one of the ideas central
to the British constitution. They stress the dual
link with democracy and the rule of law A link
with democracy in that people are given power not
for their own ends but for the public good and a
link with the rule of law, which demands that
those to whom power is granted should not exceed
the limits of their authority. Accountability for
the use of power is supportive of both democracy
and the rule of law and we may claim it as a
leading principle of our constitution even if it
is only imperfectly realised in practice.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability

• Keith Syrett, The Foundations of Public Law.
  Principles and Problems of Power in the British
  Constitution, Palgrave, Macmillan 2011.
• Accountability may be defined as answering for,
  explaining or justifying ones actions or
  decisions, usually to some external body which is
  independent of the original decision maker/actor.
  This can take varying forms, some of which may be
  pursued concurrently.
• political (the primary mechanism through which
  this form of accountability is realised in the
  British constitution is by way of the doctrine of
  ministerial responsibility to Parliament)
• legal (the focus is upon explaining that the
  action or decision is in compliance with the law)
• financial (demonstrating compliance with
  principles of financial probity)
• administrative (justification of actions or
  decisions in terms of principles of good
  administration)
• managerial (internal form of accountability
  based upon quality assurance within the
  organisation)
• or it may relate to values such as efficiency
  (demonstrating that resources have been spent in
  a manner which offers value for money to the
  public)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
Political accountability and the doctrine of
ministerial responsibility. Is there a difference
between accountability and responsibility? The
Public Service Select Committee of the House of
Commons in a report issued in 1996 rejected the
distinction stating that () it is not possible
absolutely to distinguish an area in which a
minister is personally responsible, and liable to
take blame, from one in which he is
constitutionally accountable. Ministerial
responsibility is not composed of two elements
with a clear break between the two. Ministerial
Code, Cabinet Office, May 2010 (the document sets
out the principles of Ministerial conduct) draws
no distinction between accountability and
responsibility providing that Ministers have a
duty to Parliament to account, and to be held to
account, for the policies, decisions and actions
of their departments and agencies.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
Ministerial Code, Cabinet Office, May 2010 Annex
A. The Seven Principles of Public
Life Selflessness. Holders of public office
should act solely in terms of the public
interest. They should not do so in order to gain
financial or other material benefits for
themselves, their family, or their
friends. Integrity. Holders of public office
should not place themselves under any financial
or other obligation to outside individuals or
organisations that might seek to influence them
in the performance of their official
duties. Objectivity. In carrying out public
business, including making public appointments,
awarding contracts, or recommending individuals
for rewards and benefits, holders of public
office should make choices on merit. Accountabilit
y. Holders of public office are accountable for
their decisions and actions to the public and
must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is
appropriate to their office. Openness. Holders of
public office should be as open as possible about
all the decisions and actions that they take.
They should give reasons for their decisions and
restrict information only when the wider public
interest clearly demands. Honesty. Holders of
public office have a duty to declare any private
interests relating to their public duties and to
take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a
way that protects the public interest. Leadership.
Holders of public office should promote and
support these principles by leadership and
example.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability

• Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law, Oxford 2009
• The constitutional principles of administrative
  law
• System principles
• separation of powers
• subsidiarity
• comity
• the rule of law (legality, due process, access
  to justice, legal certainty)
• Principles of accountability
• The two types of principles of administrative law
  are interwoven for various reasons partly
  because adhering to the system principles makes
  government more accountable, and partly because
  non-legal forms of accountability can support
  that especially famous system principle, the rule
  of law.
• Good government Responsible government
  Accountable government
• An accountable government faces up to people.
  Accountability is a fundamental requirement for
  responsible government, because officials cannot
  be trusted to act responsibly if they dont have
  to face up to anyone. () effective government
  accountability depends on much more than just
  law. It depends on party politics, on
  participation by voters, on independent and
  critical media, and on the commitment and
  integrity of Members of Parliament and other
  representatives.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability

• Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law, Oxford 2009
• Accountability and open government
• Open government is only partly new (). But the
  principle that administrative information in
  general is to be open (subject to exemptions)
  really is a radically new principle, which has
  developed since the 1990. It is of constitutional
  importance.
• The value of transparency is partly that it can
  contribute to political control of government
  ().
• It can also contribute to the rule of law ().
• But it has a more basic importance, because it
  makes the government face up to people it is in
  itself an accountability technique.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law, Oxford
2009 Accountability needs to take diverse forms
in a complex 21st-century state. Parliament
imposes certain forms of political accountability
on government and the courts impose certain forms
of legal accountability, but accountability has
to reach far beyond the courts and Parliament.
Auditors hold public authorities to account for
their finances, and their decisions may be backed
by massive financial penalties for officials
involved in corruption. Rewords (such as
promotion processes) provide a form of
accountability. Other accountability techniques
are effective because they create publicity that
has crucial political effects. Some are effective
merely because they are embarrassing to the
individuals involved who make decisions on behalf
of public authorities. Public authorities ought
to be accountable in a wide variety of ways to a
wide variety of people and institutions to
ombudsmen, to public inquiries, to public
investigations, to school inspectors, to a
variety of tribunals, to the voters, to the
media, to the courts, to the institutions of the
European Union, to the states that are party to
the Geneva Conventions, to the United
Nations () Legal accountability is neither more
nor less important than other forms of
accountability. () Parliament and the courts
each have distinct supervisory functions over the
government. So the political and legal processes
serve as complementary accountability techniques.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
mark bovens richard mulgan
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Accountability
Mark Bovens, Public accountability, in E.
Ferlie, L. Lynne, C. Pollitt (eds), The Oxford
Handbook of Public Management, Oxford 2005

• Accountability entails three main elements
• Giving an account (in the attenuated form of
  narration).
• Questioning or debating the issues.
• Evaluation or passing judgment.

Accountability is in this definition essentially
retrospective. This is to exclude from the
definition the popular participation in
policy-making seen by proponents of direct
democracy as an essential element in
accountability to the people. This is also a
thin definition of accountability. As understood
by the modern media and in popular parlance,
accountability invariably contains a fourth
element of sanction heads must roll for
accountability to be sufficiently thick. M.
Bovens thinks that sanction is likely to exclude
from the list of accountability forums some of
the most effective forms of redress those, such
as ombudsmen, who do not have the authority to
sanction formally, but who can nevertheless be
very effective in securing redress or reparation.
M. Bovens treats accountability in terms of
social relationships, where the actor may face
consequences which may on occasion only be
implicit or informal such as the very fact of
having to render account in front of television
cameras, or the disintegration of public image
and career as a result of the negative publicity
generated by the process.
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Accountability

• Richard Mulgan, Accountability an Ever-expanding
  Concept?, Public Administration 2000, nr 78
• One sense of accountability, on which all are
  agreed, is that associated with the process of
  being called to account to some authority for
  ones actions. Indeed, this sense may fairly be
  designated the original or core sense of
  accountability () Such accountability has a
  number of features
• it is external, in that the account is given to
  some other person or body outside the person or
  body being held accountable
• it involves social interaction and exchange, in
  that one side, that calling for the account,
  seeks answers and rectification while the other
  side, that being held accountable, responds and
  accepts sanctions
• it implies rights of authority, in that those
  calling for an account are asserting rights of
  superior authority over those who are
  accountable, including the rights to demand
  answers and to impose sanctions.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability

• Richard Mulgan, Accountability an Ever-expanding
  Concept?, Public Administration 2000, nr 78
• Accountability recently has increasingly been
  extended into areas where the various feature of
  core accountability no longer apply.
• the sense of individual responsibility and
  concerns for the public interest expected from
  public servants (professional and personal
  accountability internal accountability) an
  internal sense which goes beyond the core
  external focus of the term
• a feature of the various institutional checks
  and balances by which democracies seek to control
  the actions of governments (accountability as
  control) even when there is no interaction or
  exchange between governments and the institutions
  that control them
• the extent to which governments pursue the
  wishes or needs of their citizens (accountability
  as responsiveness) regardless of whether they are
  induced to do so through processes of
  authoritative exchange and control
• the public discussion between citizens on which
  democracies depend (accountability as dialogue),
  even when there is no suggestion of any authority
  or subordination between the parties involved in
  the accountability relationship

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
Accountability and open government
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Accountability
Open Government Declaration, September 20,
2011 As members of the Open Government
Partnership, committed to the principles
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the UN Convention against Corruption, and
other applicable international instruments
related to human rights and good governance We
acknowledge that people all around the world are
demanding more openness in government. They are
calling for greater civic participation in public
affairs, and seeking ways to make their
governments more transparent, responsive,
accountable, and effective.  We recognize that
countries are at different stages in their
efforts to promote openness in government, and
that each of us pursues an approach consistent
with our national priorities and circumstances
and the aspirations of our citizens. We accept
responsibility for seizing this moment to
strengthen our commitments to promote
transparency, fight corruption, empower citizens,
and harness the power of new technologies to make
government more effective and accountable.  Countr
ies that endorsed the declaration as of September
20, 2011  Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway,
Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom, United
States.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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Accountability
UK Ministerial Code, Cabinet Office, May 2010 It
is of paramount importance that Ministers give
accurate and truthful information to Parliament,
correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest
opportunity. Ministers who knowingly mislead
Parliament will be expected to offer their
resignation to the Prime Minister. Ministers
should be as open as possible with Parliament and
the public, refusing to provide information only
when disclosure would not be in the public
interest which should be decided in
accordance with the relevant statutes and the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Ministers should
similarly require civil servants who give
evidence before Parliamentary Committees on their
behalf and under their direction to be as helpful
as possible in providing accurate, truthful and
full information in accordance with the duties
and responsibilities of civil servants as set out
in the Civil Service Code.
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Accountability
Boguslaw Banaszak, Michal Bernaczyk, Konsultacje
spoleczne i prawo do informacji o procesie
prawotwórczym na tle Konstytucji RP oraz
postulatu otwartego rzadu, Zeszyty Naukowe
Sadownictwa Administracyjnego 2012, nr 4 (43),
s. 16 i n. Panstwo, które opiera swe
funkcjonowanie na dostepnosci informacji o swej
dzialalnosci i na wsparciu obywatelskiej
partycypacji, to panstwo realizujace koncepcje
tzw. otwartego rzadu (open government) (s.
17). Elementy koncepcji otwartego rzadu (s. 19)
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Richard Mulgan Accountability has become a
commonplace of the public administration
literature. A word which a few decades ago was
used only rarely and with relatively restricted
meaning (and which, interestingly, has no obvious
equivalent in other European languages) now crops
up everywhere performing all manner of analytical
and rhetorical tasks and carrying most of the
burdens of democratic governance.
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Concluding Remark
If it is dangerous to suppose that government is
always right, it will sooner or later be awkward
for public admini-stration if most people suppose
that it is always wrong. John Kenneth Galbraith
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat