Day 46 – Q 1.Lack as well as excess of accountability can affect governance? Do you agree? Analyse.

1. Lack as well as excess of accountability can affect governance? Do you agree? Analyse. 

अभाव के साथ-साथ जवाबदेही की अधिकता शासन को प्रभावित कर सकती है? क्या आप सहमत हैं? विश्लेषण करें।

Introduction:

Accountability can broadly be defined as the obligation of those holding power to take responsibility and be held answerable for their behaviour, actions and responsibility. Accountability is important in evaluating the on-going effectiveness of public officials and government and to ensure better governance.

Body: 

Accountability ensures actions and decisions taken by public officials are subject to oversight to guarantee that government initiatives meet their stated objectives and respond to the needs of the community they are meant to be benefiting, thereby contributing to better governance.

Importance of Accountability:

• Accountability ensures the rule of law and respect for institutions
• It ensures commitment to promises, manifestos and citizen’s charters.
• It empowers citizens and aids their development.
• It reduces corruption and builds trust among the governors and the governed.

Lack of Accountability will lead to: 

• Inefficiency and corruption at the level of delivery of public programs.
• Transgression of decision-making capacity by officers and arbitrary decision making of the government.
• Rising of issues like conflicts of interests, partisanship.
• Reduced professionalism and dedication. 
• Dispute arousal among different government bodies or officials as none will be ready to take responsibility for decision or action taken.  
• Government officials will be demoralized as there will be no accountability of good work done by them. Moreover, the senior official can claim credit of that work done.
• Misallocation of funds and wastage of resources.

Excessive Accountability will lead to: 

• According to ARC, Accountability might act as a deterrent. The fear of consequences might lead to inactivity of government officials. 
• Promote red-tapism and consume more time for decision making and service delivery.
• Backchannel mechanism may develop – corruption, informal gratification.
• Excessive Accountability curbs the free will, which ultimately reduces innovation and creativity in public service delivery. 

Conclusion: 

Overall, accountability isn’t the silver bullet to ensure efficient and good governance. It must also be paired with some level of discretion to allow the system to reap all the positive impacts of accountability while avoiding the negative ones. Thus only we can ensure good governance. RTI Act is a good step in this direction.