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Essay- Good governance derives its meaning from

Accountability. Please elucidate

Outline:
1. What Accountability means?
2. Why accountability is so essential?
3. Responsibility and authority move hand in hand
4. Accountability can’t be delegated
5. Meaning and parameters of Good governance
6. Governance is both decision making and implementation
7. It is answerability about utilization of the public funds
8. UNO’s eight principles of good governance
9. Good governance implies respecting opposition’s point of view
10. Manifestations of bad governance in Pakistan
11. The impacts of cronyism, favoritism, moral and financial corruption
12. Looking into the causes
13. The solution- strengthening the ‘institution of public accountability.’

Thesis statement
‘Good governance derives its meaning from the answerability of public servants to the public
notably in the matters where the expense of public funds is involved.’
In governance, accountability is answerability of one's deeds as public servant mainly in
the matters where the expense of public funds is involved. In other words, it is the acknowledgment
and taking of responsibility for actions, decisions, and policies made and their implementation
while administering and performing one's duties. It is a willingness to accept responsibility and to
be accounted for one’s actions.
Basically, accountability starts with leadership. The leadership is supposed to set the culture
of accountability in the governance, a model to be adopted by others in the hierarchy, as
subordinates follow the ways of their seniors. As a matter of fact, the person at the top is more
responsible than any other in the governance because he is the person who enjoys supreme
authority. And responsibility must commensurate with authority.
The leader is accountable for all the failures because he/she is credited for all the successes
and achievements made under his/her command. Accountability though generally not mentioned
in the job description but is a part of job description.
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Accountability is not for a limited time. It remains attached with the person even when he/she is
no more holding that particular position for all commissions and omissions done during his/her
time. There is no concept of discrimination on any consideration.
Accountability cannot be delegated or accepted by someone else. It has to apply on the person
who is held responsible for a particular act. It cannot be waved for any other good job done by the
accused person. As in Pakistan, there is a trend when high ups are prosecuted for certain ill deeds
done by them they generally refer and account for the other good acts done by them to have a
concession in the instant case.
Accountability is, therefore, that pillar of the state on which whole of its edifice stands erected.
It has to be given due importance by chalking out a workable and one of the most pragmatic
strategies as regards to its implementation and utility. In a nutshell, it must start at the top and be
applied all the way down, and at all the times. That is the culture of accountability, the real
foundation of good governance.
The governance is the process of decision making and its implementation. The good
governance denotes effective implementation of the decisions made to satisfy the wants and needs
of the masses as opposed to the selected groups of the society through a political body.
Another way to measure the level of good governance is through outcomes. For instance to
what extent the governments are successful in carrying out the goals to its people like the provision
of security, health, education, water, protection to property, and protection to the environment.
Similarly, good governance also implies the provision of public services to certain critical
groups in the population like the poor and the minorities. Creating a conducive environment for
the existence and functioning of an independent judiciary is also one of the jobs of a good
governing political body. The bureaucrats perform their tasks solely in the public interest rather
than in their self-interest. Therefore the corrupt practices both by bureaucrats and their political
masters have no scope in the domain of good governance.
According to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, "Good governance is ensuring respect
for human rights and the rule of law; strengthening democracy; promoting transparency and
capacity in public administration." To implement this, the UN follows eight principles:
 Participation - People should be able to voice their own opinions through legitimate
immediate organizations or representatives.
 Rule of Law - Legal framework should be enforced impartially, especially on human right
laws. Consensus-Oriented - Mediates differing interests to meet the broad consensus on the
best interests of a community.
 Equity and Inclusiveness - People should have opportunities to improve or maintain their
well-being.
 Effectiveness and Efficiency - Processes and institutions should be able to produce results
that meet the needs of their community while making the best of their resources.
 Accountability - Governmental institutions, private sectors, and civil society organizations
should be held accountable to the public and institutional stakeholders.
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 Transparency - Information should be accessible to the public and should be

understandable and monitored.
 Responsiveness - Institutions and processes should serve all stakeholders.
When judged on these counts we see that Pakistan lacks far behind in these parameters of
good governance. Delays in the judiciary and its independence has always put a question mark on
this vital pillar of the state. The ever-increasing number of judicial cases and the insufficient
number of judges has remained one of the reasons for the judicial delays in addition to the outdated
methodologies and frequent strikes by the bar.
The law and order situation in the country has remained unsatisfactory. The government
in the past remained severely failed particularly in Karachi to establish its writ. Calling of rangers
to take hold of the charge is a clear manifestation that the civil government has failed in carrying
out its due job. There have been terrorist attacks in the country. The government failed in taking
the responsible terrorist groups to task. There has been an energy crisis lingering for decades.
Water scarcity in many parts of the country particularly the Karachi and where it is required for
irrigation is also one of the critical crises. Because the government failed to build more dams
timely not only to generate electricity but to increase the storage capacity of water during the rainy
season. The shortage of power crippled the industrial sector of Pakistan. All such issues
collectively kept the foreign investment at arm’s length giving way to an acute lack of jobs in the
country. The unemployment played its role in breeding crime and violence in the society.
The corrupt practices in the form of kickbacks and commissions in the big projects by the
political top and the government functionaries along with colossal tax evasion kept the economy
of the country in the doldrums. Ultimately government had to rely on foreign debts and printing
of unjustified currency. This all led to inflation and upsurge in the prices of the commodities. Most
of the state-run organizations like Pakistan Steel Mill, PIA, WAPDA, Railways and many others
are running in a loss since long due to the corrupt and inefficient political leadership. The public
has to pay for this loss. The political leadership used to make the bureaucracy its partner in this
massive loot and plunder. They are not afraid of any accountability because the successive
governments have been protecting each other. Even the organizations responsible for taking the
corrupt to the task got involved in the corrupt practices. They at occasions preferred to side with
the culprit by accepting a bribe. In the absence of effective accountability, corruption has become
rampant in our society. Transparency international ranks high Pakistan in the most corrupt nations
in the world.
The darkest side of the picture has been that the opposition has also not been playing its due
role to arrest the rampant corruption. Instead, it appeared that it intentionally didn’t criticize the
government beyond a certain point so that the government might not pick up the opposition’s
corrupt practices which it did during its tenure. This nexus of criminal negligence of public
interests and governance as a matter of fact in all the developing world didn’t allow it to come up
and enjoy a respectable status in the comity of nations. The rich and poor gap is widening in these
countries with every day passes. The common man remains pillar to the post in resolving its day
to day problems. These countries appear to be in the service of the elitist segments of the society,
by the way, who also happen to be the largest evaders of the taxes.
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They are least bothered about to impart quality education to the masses because education
adds to the strength of the common man to raise its voice against the high ups. It is in this context
that the literacy rate of Pakistan remained one of the lowest in the world. It is still 57% against the
world average 86% (Source-Wikipedia). Our life expectancy is also one of the lowest in the world
that is 63 against the world and Asia’s average of 72. Pakistan’s present life expectancy matches
with Africa’s average (Source-Statista). This is so that our expenses on education and health
services are quite small. Additionally, whatever the funds are allocated to these sectors are not
efficiently utilized. In most of the cases, they fell prey to the corrupt functionaries’ malpractices.
The solution lies in strengthening the institution of public accountability on the line as it has
been developed in the developed world. People there take notice of those at the helm of affairs
when anything against the public interest come to their notice. In the developed countries the rulers
are not inherently poised to serve the masses or something good is inbuilt in their DNAs. This is
the power of protest of the masses against any wrongdoings of their leaders which keep the leaders
on the right path of good governance. It means they are forced to deliver both by the opposition
and masses who pay them in the form of taxes. That happens through literate masses who are well
aware of their rights and duties of those also who are in authority. Therefore the things will change
with the passage of time when the awareness level of the masses rise along with the literacy
percentage, and they collect the courage to raise their voice in blocking the plunder of national
exchequer by the people in power. That is the time when the accountability institutions will be
performing their duties equitably and fairly solely in the public interest without taking into
consideration the status of the culprit.
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