16th IACC delegates strive for solutions to end impunity and promote accountability

Press release - 16th IACC delegates strive for solutions to end impunity and promote accountability

EU Auditors review EU accountability landscape

EU Auditors review EU accountability landscape

Sustaining Accountability

During her primary contest with Barack Obama for the nomination of the Democratic Party, Hilary Clinton once remarked that one only needed to look at the two of them (a woman and an African American) to recognize that both represented change. One could say the same about India’s newest political party – the Aam Aadmi or Common Man Party, barely a year and half old, but being seen as a potentially transformational political force. Its members – unassuming middle class housewives, small time lawyers, IT professionals, college professors, journalists, and community organizers -- stand out in sharp contrast to the seasoned political operatives from established parties.

In fact, in an environment where opaque campaign financing, political lineage, and the politics of identity are accepted avenues to the corridors of governance, the Common Man Party has literally risen from the streets, taking on corruption at all levels, appealing to ethics and citizenship rather than caste or religious affiliation, and proving its independent credentials by making its funding (primarily small donations) transparent on its website.

But while its passionate stance against corruption has ignited hope in a country reeling under a barrage of high level corruption exposes, its conduct during its short stint in government in Delhi has also drawn flak as blurring the boundaries between governance and activism. AAP’s protagonists - a group of prominent anti-corruption activists - were among the primary authors of the country’s transparency reforms and social mobilization against corruption.

See full Press Release: http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/sustaining-accountability

Global Partnership for Social Accountability Opens 2nd Call for Proposals

The Global Partnership for Social Accountability is pleased to announce its 2nd Call for Proposals. The Call for Proposals is open to civil society organizations (CSOs) and CSO networks based and operating in any of 33 eligible countries (those that have ‘opted-in’ to the GPSA to date). Indicative grant amounts will range from US$500,000 to US$1,000,000. Requests for funding below this range will also be considered.

GPSA grants are intended to provide strategic and sustained support to CSO projects with the following objectives:

• Solving critical governance and development problems through social accountability processes that generate citizen feedback, which is used by governments and public sector institutions to solve such problems.
  Strengthening civil society’s capacities for social accountability by investing in CSOs’ institutional strengthening and through mentoring of small, nascent CSOs by well-established, larger CSOs with a track record on social accountability.

Country-Tailored Calls for Proposals Proposals must address the priority themes identified for each participating country. Visit the GPSA Call for Proposals webpage for the country-tailored Call per country. See full Press Release: http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/news/2013/11/13/global-partnership-social-accountability-opens-2nd-call-proposals

Don’t Pity the Poor JP Morgan Shareholder

Accountability has to be the key underpinning of modern capitalism.

The outcry by shareholders over the $13 billion in fines and penalties levied against JP Morgan Chase by the U.S. Justice Department is totally misplaced. The failure to understand the urgent need for the imposition of such fines represents a failure to grasp the very underpinnings of modern capitalism.

To understand why this is true, let’s take a step back to the beginning of the modern era of capitalism. These concepts of capitalism, embraced and espoused by Milton Friedman and his disciples from the Chicago school, were inevitably built on one Zen-like premise.

See full Article: http://www.theglobalist.com/dont-pity-poor-jp-morgan-shareholder/

Breaking Open the Black Box: Increasing Aid Transparency and Accountability in Haiti | Reports

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/breaking-open-the-black-box

Advancing Accountability: Displacement and Transitional Justice

Salomon Lerner, the president of Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (L) gives a copy of the report to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. (Reuters/Pilar Olivares) Pursuing justice for the human rights violations suffered by displaced persons may seem, at first glance, like a highly abstract – and potentially irrelevant – proposition. Around the world, tens of millions of people are uprooted by conflict and systematic human rights abuses. Any justice that can be done for the violations that force people from their homes, such as bombings, torture and rape, is inevitably inadequate. There is no “turning back the clock” on these crimes. At the same time, whether they are struggling to find shelter, establish new lives, or make their way back home, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) face a host of pressing economic, social and security problems. Should obtaining an inescapably imperfect measure of accountability for displacement register as a serious concern amidst the innumerable challenges facing post-conflict communities? Increasingly, in countries from Guatemala and Liberia to Iraq and East Timor, transitional justice processes are used to acknowledge and attempt to uphold responsibility for massive human rights violations. Transitional justice mechanisms include criminal trials, truth commissions, apologies, compensation, property restitution, and vetting processes. The abuses transitional justice seeks to redress often give rise to large-scale displacement, which can represent a violation in its own right. However, historically transitional justice mechanisms have often overlooked displacement as a human rights concern, and have excluded refugees and IDPs despite their important stakes in these processes. At the same time, researchers have devoted little attention to the intersection of these fields. See full Article.

Consultations on Global Partnership for Enhanced Social Accountability

The World Bank Group is considering the development of a Global Partnership aimed at strengthening beneficiary feedback and participation by supporting civil society capacity to engage with governments to improve development effectiveness.
Consultation Process on the partnership

From January 1 through March 3 2012, stakeholders are invited to give feedback on the proposed concepts behind the global partnership. A PowerPoint has been prepared as a basis for discussion. To access the overall consultation plan, see here.

See full Press Release.

Deauville Accountability Report - G8 Commitments on Health and Food Security: State of Delivery and Results

The targets and commitments set out by the G8, as well as a collective approach, have allowed great successes, notably an increase of $48.9 billion of ODA from all OECD-DAC Donors since 2004 in current dollars, and more particularly an increase of $31 billion provided by the G8. This trend represents a 61% increase in OECD-DAC Donors’ ODA, and a 54% increase in G8 countries’ ODA. This increase in the ODA volume was also followed by an increase measured in percentage of the gross national income which went up from 0.25 to 0.32 for the DAC donors. For the G8, this ratio increased by 27% between 2004 and 2010 from 0.22 to 0.28.

Despite these substantial increases, there remains a $1.27 billion shortfall (in current dollars) with the commitments made in Gleneagles (2005) to increase the global ODA towards developing countries, based on the OECD projection of a $50 billion increase.

See full Article.

Many Corporate Sustainability Ratings ‘Not Financially Viable’

Environmental Leader reports on findings from the fourth and final phase of SustainAbility’s Rate the Raters research program.

From the article:

In the future, corporate sustainability ratings need to be financially viable, forward-looking and transparent, according to the fourth and final phase of a research program into such ratings, published by SustainAbility.

In the final phase of Rate the Raters, SustainAbility argues that today many ratings are not financially viable and thus cannot invest adequate resources to improve and evolve.

See full Article.

How to build a culture of accountability - ET Slide Shows - Features - The Economic Times

John Spence is an award-wining professional speaker and corporate trainer, and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America. He is the author of "Awesomely Simple - Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action."

Inability to effectively execute key strategies - and then lack of accountability for that failed execution - is probably the single most costly business issue today.

See full Article.

Governance and accountability 'weak' in public audit

LOCAL GOVERNMENT audit committees are weak in terms of public accountability and promoting good governance, a new survey has found.

Public finance institute CIPFA questioned heads of local government audit and found their confidence was lacking in these areas, with only 15% describing their public accountability as "very effective".

This compares to more than 50% who said they perform strongly in supporting internal and external audit processes.

See full Article.

Accountability and Transparency: a Guide for State Ownership

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play an important role in the ownership landscape and in global markets. How well these state-owned enterprises are governed has a significant impact on their performance and value, as well as on public finances, economic growth and competitiveness.

Transparency and accountability are key to investment, growth and competitiveness. State-owned enterprises which are transparent and accountable are more likely to conform to the rule of law, including respecting shareholder and stakeholder rights. They enjoy higher levels of public trust and have better access to capital at lower cost.

See full Detials.

25th Annual ICGFM International Conference

When: May 15 - May 20, 2011
Where: Miami, Florida, USA

Achieving Real Accountability: a Balancing Act Among Stakeholders

Learn how governments are meeting the demands of its citizens, civil society, the media, and donors for greater impact on the shape of PFM policies.

In this era of greater transparency, citizens and civil society are demanding not only greater insight into public finance but an ability to actively influence policies and spending priorities. Citizens, civil society, the media, and donors constitute the stakeholders of government and are establishing communication channels to assert their priorities to their governments and attempting to shape debate and decision making. Governments must strive to listen to these voices even when the messages are not consistent. Valuable information on how countries are meeting these challenges and examples from these stakeholder groups will be the theme of this conference. Representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America will share their practical experiences in meeting the new demands for greater interaction between government and its stakeholders.

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Accountability Results from a Broad Range of Stakeholders: ICGFM Issues Call for Speakers at its 25th International Conference

In this era of social media, rapidly expanding access to a variety of information outlets, greater activism by civil society groups, and a greater demand for results, public sector accountability has grown beyond the traditional institutions that exercised oversight of public expenditure. While auditors and legislative oversight continue to play a key role, anyone with the ability to create or read a blog can be part of the growing intertwined mechanisms to hold government accountable for how it spends public funds and what outcomes result.

The International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM) has issued a call for speakers, panel members, and presentations to be made at its 25th Annual International Conference which will be held in Miami from May 15-20. The theme of the conference will be: Achieving Real Accountability: A Balancing Act Among Stakeholders.

See full Article.

A Closer Look: Attaining Accountability in the Development Sector

This report examines the implementation and oversight of development assistance programs, and provides understanding of common denominators of accountability for a positive impact on recipient countries.

See full Press Release.

Few banks in UK sign code of conduct on taxation

Chancellor George Osborne has pledged to force the remaining banks to sign the code of conduct
The only bank without substantial state ownership to sign the government's code of conduct on taxation is Standard Chartered, the BBC has learned.

Three others, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and Northern Rock, have also signed.

Chancellor George Osborne has said he would force the remaining 11 of the 15 largest banks to sign up to the code.

See full Article.

Milken Institute Global Dispatches: Boards of directors: Calling for more accountability

Boards of directors in corporate America, having failed to stop companies such as Enron and Lehman Bros. from self destructing, will emerge from the financial crisis with enhanced clout, independence and diversity - and a new mandate to really use their new new role to stop abuses and recklessness. "We're entering into an environment where boards are going to be more accountable," said Clifton Robbins, CEO of Blue Harbour Group.

Governance changes are being fueled in part by popular anger over large payouts to bank executives who received federal funding to stay afloat, said Kenneth Feinberg, who on behalf of the Treasury Department determines compensation for the top 25 executives at the seven major financial institutions bailed out by the government. "One of the important lessons of the last two years," he said, is that "the American people want stronger executive compensation reform and regulatory reform to give government institutions more authority over how these corporations manage themselves."

See full Article.

Holding The Boss Accountable

In 1921, Charles Ponzi took the American people on a fraudulent wild ride of scheming and dealing. He made polluted money in a frenzy of illegal shenanigans. Who held Charles Ponzi accountable? Until the U.S. court system stepped in, no one did.

While most cases of deficient accountability aren't nearly as severe as the case of Charles Ponzi, there are potential Charles Ponzi's in every industry and in any-sized organization. Consider the latest round of Ponzi schemes. Action accountability for everyone is a priority. Is accountability built into your boss' job? Is it built into your job?

One of the main purposes of a 360 feedback process is to create accountability for the way leaders lead. The feedback received from a 360 assessment should act as a catalyst for a leader's personal improvement. Without accountability, a 360 survey is not a catalyst, it is simply ineffective.

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Off the Shelf - In ‘Money for Nothing,’ a Call for Accountable Directors

IT sounds like good work if you can get it, and thousands of people in corporate America do. On average, they attend 8 to 12 meetings annually. Although they are supposed to have fiduciary obligations, they often appear simply to warm their assigned seats, and to raise their hands when their leader calls for a vote. For that, they can receive as much as $640,000 a year.

Who are these people? Company directors, who are typically handpicked from other companies, banks, academia and, in some cases, social directories.

But underworked, overpaid corporate boards are doing serious harm to the shareholders of public companies and the economy as a whole, according to “Money for Nothing: How the Failure of Corporate Boards Is Ruining American Business and Costing Us Trillions” (Free Press, $27), by John Gillespie and David Zweig.

See full Article.