The Importance of Accountability Practices in the Public Sector

The New Public Management reflects a paradigm and orientation shift regarding the cornerstone of management in the public sector. With this new type of management emphasis was given to accountability in order to, on the one hand instill the need to render accounts when talking about the way decisions are taken (responsibility) and the way public resources are used (clarity) and on the other hand the citizens having the possibility of getting information which will allow them to make the public officials responsible. Considering the importance of accountability, this chapter was an attempt to carry out a bibliographic review, as a way of getting to know the different approaches to the concept, as well as getting to know the mechanisms that have been created in order to give explanations whether for the performance or accomplishment of a responsibility and if this is inherent to the responsibilities of the public officials.