**Table 1: Mechanisms for Advancing Public Sector Accountability**

|**Accountability**<br>**Mechanisms**|**Task**|**Method**|
|---|---|---|
|**Information**|Provision of Information|Mandatory provision of information by the government (e.g.,<br>public hearings, annual reports, newsletters); citizen-led sources<br>such as service delivery“scorecard” surveys.|
||Financial Disclosure|Timely accounting and budget information (e.g., quarterly reports<br>followed byaudited financial reports).|
||Financial Management<br>Systems|Use of financial management information systems (which, for<br>example, can provide citizens on-line access to key indicators of<br>performance).|
||Competitive Procurement|Local government procurement processes must be transparent,<br>open,and,for largerprojects,competitive.|
|**Consultation /**<br>**Oversight**|Notice and Comment on<br>Rule-making|Requirement that draft normative acts be published in public<br>forumsprior to their enactment.|
||Public hearings|Public hearings may be required by law.|
||Administrative Procedure<br>Systems|Administrative procedures should require that citizens receive<br>noticeprior to anychange in legislation or other action.|
||Advisory Committees|Permanent or ad hoc bodies that provide input to government in<br>variouspolicyareas.|
|**Active**<br>**Participation **|Right to Petition|The public has the right to propose the adoption, amendment or<br>repeal of a normative act.|
||Consensus/Negotiated<br>Rulemaking|Councils that consult with groups must reach consensus with<br>respect topolicyinitiatives.|
|**Media—Right to**<br>**Know**|Non-governmentally<br>controlled media (print and<br>electronic)|Require government to inform the independent press of its<br>activities, from procurement practices to budget reports.|

Source: Russell-Einhorn (2004); Renikka and Svensson (2004); Authors.

# **4.2 Central and Local Government Reporting Relationship**

A fundamental issue is that of the appropriate role of central government in promoting and ensuring the vertical accountability and the efficacy of local government financial reporting. This can be a tricky matter since the very manner that the issue is phrased as the “role of the central government” not only presumes a hierarchy among governments, but also that the central authority has the capacity and integrity to be in a position to monitor its subnational governments. The complement of fiscal decentralization is the need for regular, timely and comprehensive reporting from local governments to the central government’s Ministry of Finance. This should be an accepted norm as the cornerstone of the accountability compact between central and subnational governments. It is entirely reasonable that the Ministry of Finance insist on it as a condition of fiscal decentralization.

Central governments have an important role in monitoring local government financial performance and reporting and collecting intergovernmental (including provincial and local) data. However, if the central government seizes upon this monitoring as a justification for interfering with what is a subnational/local competency then this tension represents a destructive rather than positive or “healthy” sign of robust intergovernmental relations. The central government’s role can arguably extend beyond mere monitoring of local government’s performance and collection of data if local governments are delivering services for which the central government has the primary 13 | P a g e