Restoring Accountability

Argues for a more robust conception of responsibility in public life than prevails in contemporary democracies.

This report is concerned exclusively with the Gomery Commission's second mandate: to make recommendations, based on the factual findings of its first report, on a series of issues such as government transparency & accountability, the relationship between public servants and politicians, and the responsibilities that should be assigned to Parliament & parliamentarians. Part one outlines the reforms introduced by the federal government since the Commission was established in February 2004 and the suggestions the Commission heard from Canadians about what they felt should be done about accountability & transparency in government and other issues considered in the first report. Part two has five sections covering accountability issues, including the fundamental bases for the responsibilities & accountabilities of Ministers & senior public servants, the capacity of Parliament to hold the government to account, and the roles of the Prime Minister, Ministers, exempt staff, the Privy Council Office, and the Clerk of the Privy Council. Part three deals with more specific issues such as the future management of advertising & sponsorship activities as well as lobbying. It assesses measures to improve transparency, including legislative initiatives pertaining to information access, whistleblowing, sanctions related to failure to fulfil financial administration obligations, appointments to Crown corporations, and internal audits. Part four contains the Commission's consolidated recommendations which are also found throughout the report. The recommendations are designed to rebalance the relationship between Parliament & government, better assign responsibility, and strengthen accountability in the public interest.

How to restore the can-do spirit that made America great, from the author of the best-selling The Death of Common Sense. Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices—teachers can’t maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: “Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller.” Philip K. Howard’s urgent argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess and lays out the basic shift in approach needed to fix it. Today we are flooded with legal threats that prevent us from taking responsibility. We must rebuild boundaries of law that protect an open field of freedom. The voices here will ring true to every reader. The analysis is powerful, and the solution unavoidable. What’s at stake, Howard explains in this seminal book, is the vitality of American culture.

A just culture is a culture of trust, learning and accountability. It is particularly important when an incident has occurred; when something has gone wrong. How do you respond to the people involved? What do you do to minimize the negative impact, and maximize learning? This third edition of Sidney Dekker’s extremely successful Just Culture offers new material on restorative justice and ideas about why your people may be breaking rules. Supported by extensive case material, you will learn about safety reporting and honest disclosure, about retributive just culture and about the criminalization of human error. Some suspect a just culture means letting people off the hook. Yet they believe they need to remain able to hold people accountable for undesirable performance. In this new edition, Dekker asks you to look at 'accountability' in different ways. One is by asking which rule was broken, who did it, whether that behavior crossed some line, and what the appropriate consequences should be. In this retributive sense, an 'account' is something you get people to pay, or settle. But who will draw that line? And is the process fair? Another way to approach accountability after an incident is to ask who was hurt. To ask what their needs are. And to explore whose obligation it is to meet those needs. People involved in causing the incident may well want to participate in meeting those needs. In this restorative sense, an 'account' is something you get people to tell, and others to listen to. Learn to look at accountability in different ways and your impact on restoring trust, learning and a sense of humanity in your organization could be enormous.