Review article
Responsibility with accountability: A FAIR governance framework for performance accountability of local governments
Anwar Shah
; Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) Chengdu, China
Abstract
This paper focuses on the role of local governments in bringing about fair,
accountable, incoorruptible and responsive (FAIR) governance. Local governments
around the world have done important innovations to earn the trust of their residents
and their comparative performance is of great interest yet a comprehensive framework
to provide such benchmarking is not available. This paper attempts to fill this void, by
developing a general framework for performance accountability of local governments
and by relating real world practices to aspects of this framework. The proposed rating
framework requires several types of assessments: (a) their compliance with due
process and law; (b) monitoring of fiscal health for sustainability; (c) monitoring of
service delivery ; and (d) citizens’ satisfaction with local services. The approach yields
key indicators useful for benchmarking performance that can be used in selfevaluation
and improvement of performance. t From an analysis of practices in local
government performance monitoring and evaluation, the paper concludes that ad hoc
ad-on self standing monitoring and evaluation systems are more costly and less useful
than built-in tools and mechanisms for government transparency, self–evaluation and
citizen based accountability such as local government output budgeting and output
based fiscal transfers to finance local services.
Keywords
Local government; responsibility; accountability; theory; practice; performance
Hrčak ID:
131539
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2014.
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