ABSTRACT
The process of devolution in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales has adopted accountability as one of the key principles that underline the operations of the devolved institutions. Indeed accountability has been considered a fundamental concept (Glynn, 1993: 15), and ‘an enduring and key notion’ (Gendron et al., 2001: 282) in public sector management. The term ‘accountability’ means in general that someone is responsible for rendering an account about something to someone else. However, this term has been described as elusive (Sinclair, 1995: 219) and its scope and meaning has broadened into different directions beyond its basic definition of providing an account for one’s actions (Mulgan, 2000: 555). Moreover, specific institutional arrangements impinge on the meaning attributed to accountability (Stone, 1995). In the academic literature, its definition exists in a variety of forms being shaped by social and political contexts (Day and Klein, 1987: 2). Thus, accountability ‘reveals chameleon qualities’ as at least five forms of accountability can be identified (Sinclair, 1995: 223): political, managerial, public, professional and personal.
