Public Accountability ICT Support: A Detailed Account of Public Accountability Process and Tasks

Abstract

Part 2: Open and Smart GovernmentInternational audienceA key objective of open government programs is to promote public accountability by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to release data on the internal working of public agencies. However, it is not clear how actual accountability (such as sanctions or rewards) may be achieved from the data disclosed. Nor it is clear how ICT in general should support it. To better understand how ICT can support open data initiated accountability processes in achieving their goal, this paper considers the three phases (information, discussion, and consequences) usually used to describe such processes. Defining ICT support for these major phases is a difficult effort, since each phase encompasses different tasks and support requirements. This paper aims to address this problem by providing a detailed account of the tasks associated with the whole public accountability process. This may be used by those responsible for open government programs to design and deploy comprehensive ICT support platforms using a task-technology fit perspective

Open data driven public accountability

“…Beside these references, one specific type of tool, social media, seems to gain relevance both in the general context of government (Chun and Luna Reyes, 2012; Mergel and Bretschneider, 2013) and openness, transparency and accountability in particular (Bertot et al , 2012; Stamati et al , 2015). However, despite these efforts, there is a need to associate specific tools with specific tasks of a public accountability process (Lourenço et al , 2015), thus covering the whole process and not just the data disclosure (transparency) stage.…”

“…According to the concept of accountability used by Bovens (2007), public accountability consists of a forum (citizens and civic actors such as NGOs, the media and courts) and actors (public, elected representatives and appointed officials). Lourenço et al . (2015) analysed detailed sequential actions and events involved in the relationship of the actor(s) and forum(s) in the public accountability process and developed a three-stage accountability task framework involving a decomposition of the tasks of the accountability process (Stage 1); a categorization of those tasks into abstract data patterns based on the affordances of several kinds of ICT (Stage 2); and, finally, a combination of the tasks and patterns into a “comprehensive public accountability support platform” (Stage 3).…”

Levels of Value Integration in Federal Agencies' Mission and Value Statements: Is Open Government a Performance Target of U.S. Federal Agencies?

“…A further defining feature of open government is that it has added urgency to the question of how public agencies can perform in democratic‐constitutional processes by taking advantage of information and communications technology (Harrison et al ; Lee and Kwak ; Lourenço, Piotrowski, and Ingrams ). Agencies have undertaken initiatives to promote public participation in policy making or policy feedback through online discussion forums, social media, and digital crowdsourcing (e.g., Bishop and Davis ; Evans and Campos ; Linders ).…”

Transparency for Results: Testing a Model of Performance Management in Open Government Initiatives

“…By designing clear goals, organizations are able to create a coherent strategy, and create effective, measurable outcomes (Chun and Rainey, 2005;Julnes & Holzer, 2001;Kravchuk & Schack, 1996). Without clear organizational goals, riskier strategic choices are more likely (Bozeman & Kingsley, 1998), and organization-wide detrimental effects can result from the lack of cognitive clarity such as low motivation (Jung, 2014;Wright, 2004 (Meijer, Curtin, & Hillebrandt, 2012;Piotrowski and Liao, 2012) and accountability (Lourenço, Piotrowski, and Ingrams, 2015;Yu & Robinson, 2012). It is therefore expected that open government initiatives that have clear goals for accountability and public participation would be more highly performing than initiatives that do not have clear goals.…”

“…The arrival of a type of transparency policy called "open government" has increased discussion around the topic of how transparency initiatives actually deliver the benefits of public accountability that they claim (Yu & Robinson, 2012). Open government seeks to advance transparency through a broader range of programs involving fostering citizen participation, accountability, and democratic processes from information and communication technologies (Harrison et al, 2012;Lee & Kwak, 2012;Lourenço, Piotrowski, and Ingrams, 2015). The transparency programs in open government include areas such as budget openness and freedom of information (FOI) (e.g., Birkinshaw, 2002;Worthy, 2010), public participation in government innovation or public policies and town hall style online forums for public comment around regulations or legislative proposals (Beierle & Konisky, 2000;Bishop & Davis, 2002;Evans & Campos, 2013;Linders, 2012), and better transparency in relationships between government agencies and third-party organizations in the private and nonprofit sectors (e.g., Peled, 2011;Scholl & Klischewski, 2007).…”