The Accountability of Community Sector Agencies: A Comparative Framework

Accountability in community sector organisations is analysed in comparison with the public and private for-profit sectors, according to a number of variables: who is accountable (collective and individual); for what they are accountable (legal compliance and financial reporting, general performance, treatment of individual clients); and to whom they are accountable (the public, ‘owners’, and ‘clients’). Accountability of individual members within organisations is also explored. ‘Accountability ’ to personal values is misleadingly so named. The community sector has significantly less accountability. 3Introduction Academic research has identified a number of potentially problematic issues in relation to the accountability of the community sector. First, the sector places great emphasis on the value-orientation and trustworthiness of its members, a feature which discourages both external accountability (Taylor 1996: 59-60) and internal control (McDonald 1999: 19). Secondly, members of the sector face ‘multiple ’ accountabilities to a number of stakeholders rather than to a single source of authority (Leat 1990