Government accountability and performance measurement

Transforming the public sector: 1998–2018

“…8. NPM as the herald of de-professionalisation and the promotion of technological changes in the delivery of government services Boden et al (1998); Mir and Rahaman (2007); Robinson (2003); Edwards et al (1999); Gil-McClure et al (2003); Caccia and Steccolini (2000); Arrington and Watkins (2007); Carter and Crowther (2000); Pina and Torres (2007) (3) Audit The research in public sector audit from this era had two particularly notable preoccupations: first, the changing nature of the government audit role; and second performance (or "efficiency") auditing (see Table 6.3).…”

Grounding Police Accountability and Performance in Context: A Comparative Study of Stop and Frisk Between New York City and Taipei City

“…Accountability is defined as “subject to giving an account: answerable” and “capable of being accounted for: explainable” (Behn, , p. 4). Thus, “if one is accountable, then one is answerable to another party or parties, and is bound to give an explanation for one's conduct or actions taken” (Robinson, , p. 172). In modern democratic governance, accountability could be considered a social relationship where accountability holdees (e.g.…”

Prisons, the profit motive and other challenges to accountability

“…These are evidenced by the increasing reliance on performance measures (Robinson, 2003), financial reports (Stanton, 1997), limited audit investigations (English, 2003) and political debate that centres on a statistical or numerical discussion of events (Rose, 1991). In regard to accounting, Arrington has argued that "accounting just assumes its sovereignty over the moral, assumes its right to hold all accountable to its ridiculous telos -money" (1999, p.1).…”

“…It is now possible that a private, for profit, company to be accountable to the government for the delivery of prison services and facilities and the government is then accountable to the public (including prisoners) for the delivery of these services -in so doing, distance is placed between the service provider and the community in a way that would present significant challenges to fulfilling any technical, let alone moral, accountability function. In an attempt to address this, or further reinforce it, private prison operators present largely technical accounts of events and are accountable for the delivery of certain services at a certain quality against performance indicators (Robinson, 2003); the government is able to report on these in a relatively objective manner and also distance themselves from direct responsibility; and at the same time, questions about the ethical and moral responsibility of government and society to these citizens is almost entirely eradicated from debate.…”