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Ngos As A Part Of Accountability

Decent Essays

NGOs AS A PART OF ACCOUNTABILITY CHAIN IN SERBIAN POLITICS

INTRODUCTION

At the heart of good governance are the ideas of accountability, transparency and participation. These ideas have grown in popularity after democratic changes in 2000; hence it could be said that concept of accountability is relatively new in Serbia. Accountability has different meaning in different political systems, but in general “by accountability is meant the imperative to make public officials answerable for their behavior and responsive to the entity from which they derive their authority. Accountability also means establishing criteria to measure the performance of public officials, as well as oversight mechanisms to ensure that standards are met.” …show more content…

Citizens are at the highest level of the accountability chain in Serbia and all authorities are accountable to the citizens. “Genuine elections – no matter how free and fair – are insufficient in ensuring that elected officials are accountable and responsive to citizens.” Therefore, citizens need to participate in political processes between elections and parliaments are citizens’ institutions that should initiate and enable participation. “As the representative branches of democratic governments, parliaments are meant to provide citizens with links to the policy-making process and with methods of holding the executive branch to account.”
While the Government is accountable to the Parliament, on the bottom of this structure are various public bodies, agencies, etc. to which the Government assigns power and responsibilities through regulations and policies. Independent bodies working together with the Parliament on oversight function play an important role in the chain of accountability.

“Participants can discharge their accountability functions effectively only if they know to whom they are accountable and for what. Likewise, they can hold others accountable only if they understand who is accountable to them and for what.” In Serbian political practice, public officials do not have understanding of these matters or they try to avoid responsibilities. Only at the highest level – Government towards Parliament - participants

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