STATE OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KP) IN LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES

Abstract

Accountability is a complex word having answerability, responsibility, liability, obligation, integrity etc. as its interchangeable replacements. However, this paper discusses accountability within the context of anti-corruption systems and practices with regard to the public sector. Accountability is one of the core components of good governance, widely discussed in the contemporary literature. Without having an effective accountability framework and correspondingly efficient accountability regime to ensure across-the-board accountability, governance cannot be improved under any circumstance. World-wide, public sectors are increasingly persuaded by the civil society, multilateral organizations and the public at large for justifying their existence and use of public resources. Public sector of Pakistan is considered among the most corrupt in world. It is consistently among the poorest performers on Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Successive governments at country level established accountability regimes to combat corruption while KP has also attempted to put in place a sub-national accountability mechanism in the forms of EC and Anticorruption Establishment to confront the issue. This papers attempts to analyze the effectiveness of public sector accountability and efficiency of accountability regimes in KP in light of best practices of the world. This also puts forward a set of recommendations for the policy makers to make accountability processes more effective and worthwhile.