Preliminary Study on Accountability of Social Organisations Directed Towards Social Public-Private Partnership in Malaysia

Abstract

Solving social issues such as homelessness, youth unemployment, reoffending prisoners and drug abuse has traditionally been the government's responsibility and consumed many public expenditures. An emerging initiative in many countries is moving from a single-handed approach to a collaborative approach between the government, private organisations and social organisations in enhancing social development. The government and private organisations provide the funds the social purpose organisations require to deliver their social goods. As a result, social purpose organisations must demonstrate accountability in managing the funds and delivering their social goods. This study reports the preliminary results of the information on accountability in the annual reports and Finance Information Form or Borang Maklumat Kewangan (BMK) of social purpose organisations registered with The Companies Commission of Malaysia or Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM). The findings demonstrate that Malaysian social purpose organisations are improving their accountability despite lacking a specific governance framework for the NPO sector. The theoretical reporting model covered in this paper also helps social organisations uphold their responsibility to be accountable. While this is happening, the framework also explicitly addresses the crucial components of accountability and reported information quality, ensuring that the available data gives funders and other significant stakeholders the knowledge they need to make decisions with the greatest possible social impact. This is significant because public-private partnerships are becoming increasingly popular in Malaysia and have been shown to benefit the state, the private sector, and nonprofit groups in numerous ways.