5.2 Accountability: what is it, to whom and how?
- Accountability—what is it?
- Who am I accountable to?
- Accountability and legitimacy go hand in hand
- How to achieve accountability
- How to improve accountability
Accountability—what is it?
To be accountable means:
- to answer for your actions and take responsibility for your mistakes
- to be responsible to another
- to be able to explain what happened
Who am I accountable to?
Indigenous leaders are accountable to:
- their families and communities, language group or Nation, kin-based networks, communities and laws; they must show proper respect through their decisions and how they behave. Often Indigenous leaders are accountable to their elders, senior men or women.
- their managers, staff and members
- their funding bodies and business partners; they must meet the standards of behaviour, transparency, reporting and decision making
This means they have a ‘two-way’ accountability.
The two-way accountability of Indigenous organisations
Part of being accountable is consulting the people in your community about:
- decisions to be made
- letting them know what is going on
- letting them know how money is being spent—and that it is being done so fairly
Funding bodies or other organisations or business who work with you want your organisation to show you can manage money well, you can deliver services well, you can follow the rules, and report properly.
Accountability and legitimacy go hand in hand
An organisation’s legitimacy is the authority it has in the community.
If an organisation isn’t seen as being legitimate, its members won’t support it. Members sometimes show their lack of support by disengaging, not attending meetings and not asking for information on what the organisation is doing. Other times they show it by actively engaging through Annual General Meetings or other forums. If an organisation doesn’t have the confidence and support of its members, then it won’t have legitimacy.
Once this happens, they also start losing credibility with government and others. Also, if organisations and leaders have cultural legitimacy, but are careless in their accountability to funding bodies, they soon lose their funding and support.
Organisations have to balance Indigenous modes of accountability and effectiveness with those of funding bodies and government.
How to achieve accountability
Accountability must contain these elements to be successful:
To be accountable an organisation must have:
- policies and procedures
- planning and performance reporting
- clear roles and responsibilities
- ways of making and carrying out decisions that members see as legitimate
The most successful organisations are those that use a mix of governance tools and principles from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous areas.
How to improve accountability
To improve accountability, Indigenous organisations are using measures such as:
- fair election or selection processes for deciding who represents them
- an annual general meeting
- a written annual report that everyone can read or developing methods of translating reports for organisation and governing body members.
- regular financial reports to funders
- open meetings or consultations with members and/or community
- regular communication and different media tools—meetings, radio interviews, media releases, posters
Is your organisation properly accountable?
See: Resource 5.4 Check-up—Are your processes accountable?
An annual general meeting
Caption: Yamatji Marlpa Barna Baba Maaja Aboriginal Corporation
An AGM is an important forum for the governing body to:
- formally report to its members on the activities over the preceding year
- to present a set of financial accounts, appoint an auditor for the coming year
- answer any questions
- hold elections as required
An annual report
A formal written annual report, including an audited financial statement in an easy to understand format, is an important form of public accountability.
Other reporting
Indigenous corporations have to report in various ways:
- all need to prepare financial statements
- if they are incorporated under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, the Corporations Act 2001 or a state or territory Act, they must report according to the law
- they are usually required to report to their funding agencies—how and when depends on individual circumstances
It is important that these reports are produced on time, transparently, and with the required information in them.
Read next: 5.3 Running effective meetings
Read previous: 5.1 Making decisions about money and how to manage it