Transparency & Accountability

 Transparency

Transparency is a fundamental requirement for the reliability and integrity of public institutions in order to promote public trust and public support. Transparency in public administration guarantees legal assurance and increases the level of legitimacy in decision making process.

• The administration of Kautilya during the Mouryan period was more or less centralized with an effective system of intelligence gathering.
• During the Mughal period, the concept of centralised administration continued with greater vigour. Accountability and transparency in this centralised administration were conspicuous by their absence.
• Then came the colonial administration of the British. Here again, the basic format was of a centralized administration. There was a vertically controlled administrative setup with a District Magistrate and Collector as the key figure. The Collector in the eyes of the people was “MaiBap” whose job was to maintain law and order and collect revenue.
• While the administration was efficient, it had hardly any room for being responsive, accountable and transparent. It was not responsive and not citizen-friendly.
• These concepts, however, underwent a sea change in later years with token participation of people at various levels.
• Many administrative innovations were no doubt brought about in various fields like social, economic and technological, but these were mere cosmetic changes and primarily intended to suit the colonial requirements.

Relationship between the transparency and accountability:

• Usually, transparency is considered as a pre-requisite of accountability as well. This is because for an action to be evaluated properly there should be access to all necessary information. If the access is denied, then accountability cannot be proven.
• Accountability and transparency can take different forms, and the relationship between them depends on the extent to which they are designed to support each other.
• Both transparency and accountability are viewed as necessary conditions for good management. This applies in a large variety of settings starting from the individual to organizations.
• In general, it is assumed that the existence of transparency would result in better governance, more accountability and less corruption
• In public services both transparency and accountability are must to ensure good governance. It is evident that transparency is a pre-condition of accountability.
• There is a direct link between transparency and accountability, and both strengthen each other.
• Thus accountability must accompany transparency as if a civil servant is not accountable for his decisions, transparency would not fulfil the purpose.

Importance of accountability with transparency:

• Accountability lead to the obligation of an individual or an organisation (either in the public or the private sectors) to accept responsibility for their activities, and to disclose them in a transparent manner. This includes the responsibility for decision-making processes, money or other entrusted property.
• Accountability result in answerability (the duty of an individual or organisation to answer to their decisions and actions) and punishments in case of malpractice.
• If citizens are to hold their government accountable, they must be able to find out what it is doing.
• High levels of corruption and poor quality of public services, especially in developing countries, enhanced the demand for accountability from the civil society.
• Social accountability has been highly valued to curb corruption, especially in countries with a systematic problem of corruption and weak institutional systems.

Initiative to enhance transparency in Public Administration

Some of the initiatives taken by the Indian Public Administration to ensure transparency in its working include – Right to Information Act, Public Services Bill, Citizens Charters, e-Governance, e-Bhoomi, e-Choupal, e-procurement.

• Right to Information Act – It is the freedom to know the details of the steps and measures taken by the different elements of the system. It can be better called the right of public access to the key information. It induces deep trust in the actions of the system. Whenever the public finds the decisions are forced or manipulated, they can seek the details of the matter.
• Citizens Charters- Citizens Charter Bill 2011 aims at providing rights to citizens for time-bound delivery of goods and services and provide a Grievance Redressal Mechanism. Citizen Charter is a voluntary and written document that spells out the service provider’s efforts taken to focus on their commitment towards fulfilling the needs of the citizens/customers. Check out the detailed information on Citizen’s Charter on the link provided here. Such a bill was previously recommended by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission.
• Elimination of Corruption – Lokpal and Lokayuktas aims at reducing corruption by setting up a separate institution of Lokpal at the Central level and Lokayuktas at the State level. These organizations investigate cases of corruption against public servants in the respective Government organizations.
• e-Governance – E-Governance initiatives for providing an accountable administration include a framework for efficient handling of public grievances through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System which is already in place