ABSTRACT

Public reporting refers to the actions of a government agency to account to the citizenry for its activities in the recent past, including its record of performance and its stewardship of public funds. The term refers both to the normative obligation of public entities in a democracy to perform such activities and to the internal management activities necessary to accomplish this external communications goal. Public reporting was developed by public administration theorists in the first half of the 20th century in an effort to harmonize the emergence of the administrative state with democracy.