Public Accountability in African Local Governments

Synonyms

Answerability; Culpability; Liability; Responsibility

Definitions

Accountability:

involves being held answerable for one’s actions or decisions that attract consequences of punishment for performance or nonperformance.

Public accountability:

is the obligation of government agencies through the civil servants to explain the utilization of delegated responsibilities they exercised in trust on behalf of citizens.

Local government:

is a lower-level administrative unit of a country set up in cities, districts, towns, counties, and parishes with responsibility to provide delegated or devolved services to the public. These units are manned by appointed and elected public officers.

Historical Perspective of Accountability

Accountability is a concept that originated from the old French word, “aconter,” meaning to count and enumerate which equates to the Latin word, “computare,” which denotes to reckon up and render account arithmetically. This concept gradually progressed to encompass...