Essence of accountability
The long political turmoil that was brewing over Bangladesh for decades finally ended up in the present fiasco. By now we know most of the covert and overt reasons of the gradual decline of our political system. The factor topping the dark list is the continual recession of government accountability in each fold of its activity. In strict sense, accountability means that public officials -- elected and un-elected -- have an obligation to explain their decisions and actions to the citizens. The absence of such a transparency mechanism gives rise to many an irregular action, the foremost of which is corruption. Now that the closed vault has been forced open, we are appalled at the gargantuan volume of veiled misdeeds and corruption that got piled up over the years. Lack of government accountability lies at the core of such massive fraud and deception.
As the saying goes, the rot spreads from the head. The primary accountability begins with the political leadership that runs the government power wheel. If the election process is decidedly free and fair, people's representatives understand that they are elected for a fixed term and they have to negotiate the next election where money and muscle will not work. They will be under obligation to remain above-board in discharging routine duties as they know that people may vote them out of office if they are not satisfied with their performance. Pitifully, barring a few, our elected representatives took resort to a sort of jungle law during their tenure in office on the strong presumption that they could craftily mould the electorate and manipulate election results. What we need in the first place is a flawless and dependable voting mechanism that will put an end to the anti-people trend.
Accountability of the public officials depends mostly on the activity of their political and line bosses in the fashion of a chain reaction. The volumes of codified rules and procedures carry little meaning; it is important whether the misdeeds perpetrated are deliberately allowed to go unnoticed and unaccounted. A recent revelation that a few low grade employees of a gas company had amassed money and property worth hundreds of crores benumbed us with immense curiosity and wonder. Would anybody believe that such a mammoth heist was going on over the years without the knowledge and patronage of the high-ups? Corruption epidemic has swamped even the narrowest corners of the entire social service and development sectors causing a loss of nearly 3% to the annual GDP. Many of the NGOs and private sector organisations have earned notoriety in corruption and malpractices in service dispensation. Only recently a number of NGOs have been identified as ruthless swindlers. The term 'Accountability' encompasses a much wider area and not limited only to political and public singsong; most private and autonomous agencies indulge in the same mean practice causing huge national loss and misery to the people. All these malefactors need to be disciplined and confined within their authorised bounds.
In fact, absence of accountability is an all-pervasive virulence cutting deep into the institutional fairness one way or the other. A mischief in whatever form is committed and the offender is not accountable to anybody albeit he is supposed to be. This is because the epidemic has infected all, from the highest to the lowest echelons. We feel ashamed of our steady relegation in the community of democratic countries. I quote a remark by Edmund Burke, "The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment, is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right." The time has come and the dark cloud seems to be drifting away. People in crisis, with deliberation and wisdom, have vowed to establish their inherent right to know and put questions and that will be the vital key to the creation of an accountable and efficient administration opening up a new horizon. The reformation is on, and we anxiously look for the better days to come.
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