Accountability

Definition  Accountability is in itself answerability, blameworthiness, liability and the expectation of account giving. The actual relation can be formalized as follows: "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct" There are two perspectives to accountability: descriptive and normative. In descriptive attempt accountability is defined in identifiable terms as a mechanism and also analyzed in correlation relations. This also includes the assessment how issues in consideration come true. Ethical perspective includes the consideration of whether social control is being morally sound. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship practices propose that corporations should be regulated and monitored by society (be accountable) and not only by shareholders. In this context accountability should be understood as social corporate control where there are clear means for sanctioning failure. This differs from neoclassical accountability where companies should only answer to shareholders as their legitimate owners. Transparency is closely related to accountability, because accounting is required before accountability can take place. This is also where accountability is deeply related to tax evasion and tax havens. If actors aren't accountable for their activities, opportunity for tax evasion is present. The opportunity is also one of the three key features present in frauds as descripted in Fraud Triangle Framework.