Accountability from the Perspective of Malaysian Governance

Abstract

Generally, accountability is often associated with a concept of answerability, responsibility, blameworthiness, liability etc. Commonly, the concept of accountability from the perspective of governance is the means to control the public administration in democratic countries. The classification of public accountability is normally seen in terms of external and internal mechanisms. Hence, this paper shall discuss both mechanisms with special reference to Malaysia. The discussion also focuses on the limitation of each mechanism which rendered some problems to the concept of accountability in Malaysia.

Perceptions and Experiences of Health Care Workers on Accountability Mechanisms for Enhancing Quality Improvement in the Delivery of Maternal Newborns and Child Health Services in Mkuranga, Tanzania

“…Most of them suffer from inadequate mechanisms to gather information on causes of maternal mortality, referrals, injuries, and inadequate follow-up. These aspects tend to compromise enforcement to answerability due to the inability to coordinate existing monitoring systems as well as due to a shortage of appropriate indicators and inconsistencies in data collection ( 37 , 38 ).…”

Transparency And Accountability In Public Sector Financial Management System

“…Apart from ensuring compliance to Malaysian laws, another vital element in the management of public resources is the maintaining of accountability. Accountability is associated with answerability, responsibility, blameworthiness, liability and expectation of accounting (Yaakob, Kadir, & Jusoff, 2009) and is perceived as a benchmark for Malaysia to achieve in order to be considered as a country that practices good governance. Therefore, the existence of effective financial management and the quality of auditors in the agencies are expected to play pivotal role in reducing any manipulation activities and encouraging other employees to be more transparent and accountable and always enhance their professionalism in fulfilling its duties.…”

Assessment of Accountability Practices in the Public Sector of Malaysia

“…Jayasinghe and Soobaroyen (2009) stated that the role of -trust‖ was really important to be acknowledged since it was highlighted as a critical factor, underpinning the informal and socializing accountability relationships. Yaakob et al (2009) added that accountability was often associated with such concepts, such as answerability, blameworthiness, responsibility, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of accounting. According to Gray et al (2006), and Nyland and Pettersen (2015), the definition of accountability is related to the rights of society which are stakeholders within society and also the rights that emerge from the relationship between the accountor and the accountee or between the principals and agents.…”

“…In order to ensure the existence of good governance, the factor of accountability is very crucial. Even in politics, accountability is a crucial factor in determining good governance, especially in the representative democratic system (Yaakob et al, 2009). Therefore, to obtain public trust, a government needs to improve its effectiveness and quality because every citizen or public all over the world has been claiming for better accountability from the government.…”