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China is dedicated to enhancing the quality of its ecological environment, and the Central Environmental Protection Inspectorate (CEPI) system, which is an essential program for ecological civilization, has earned widespread acknowledgement for its efficacy in environmental improvement. This study investigated whether the CEPI accountability system contributed to enhancing the environmental quality by focusing on the CEPI accountability system. This study collected, explicitly, the number of people held accountable, the number of people being handed over for accountability, and the regions that the people held accountable were from; analyzed the current state of the CEPI accountability system in terms of the regional and batch differences in the accountability degree; and investigated whether the CEPI accountability system promoted environmental quality by using SPSS 10.00. The study discovered that, first and foremost, the CEPI system’s scientific level has gradually improved, and the CEPI has been more precise in its accountability targets. Second, the CEPI enhances environmental quality, and significantly impacts wastewater-discharge reduction. Third, the CEPI system lacks sustainability. Finally, the paper presents several recommendations for enhancing the CEPI accountability system, with a particular focus on how to make the CEPI system more sustainable.

Este artículo pretende poner de manifiesto la influencia del movimiento ilustrado en la contabilidad de una institución religiosa y cómo, a partir de la misma, se puede explicar la adaptación de dicha institución para hacerse eco de las transformaciones económicas impulsadas por las corrientes ideológicas que dejan su impacto en las decisiones de actuación. En este contexto, las decisiones relativas al incremento de la comercialización y la consecuente adaptación de su sistema contable, con un sistema de rendición de cuentas más preciso, supuso una adaptación a las dificultades económicas del siglo XVIII que llegaron con una influencia del movimiento ilustrado en España. This article aims to highlight the influence of the Enlightenment movement on the accounting of a religious institution and how, on the basis of this, it is possible to explain the adaptation of this institution to take on the economic transformations driven by ideological currents that leave their impact on decisions to act. In this context, the decisions regarding the increase of commercialization and the consequent adaptation of its accounting system, with a more precise accountability system, meant an adaptation to the economic difficulties of the 18th century that came with an influence of the Enlightenment in Spain.

The administrative accountability system in China has evolved during public health crises. By holding public officials accountable, the system hopes to improve their performance during emergencies....

Employees with a good understanding of the functions, duties and having sufficient competence will foster a high commitment to the agency in this case the task of implementing SAKIP. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of competence apparatus and organizational commitment to the implementation of performance accountability system of government agencies at the representative office BPKP North Sulawesi. The used sample are 40 respondents. The sample technique is sampling purposive. This research used multiple regression analysis method with SPSS 22 for windows. The results of research shows that Competency Apparatus influences the implementaion of Performnce Accountability System of Goverment Instituion whereas Commitment Organizasion is not in compliance with the Implementaion of Performnce Accountability Sistem of Goverment Instituion. And the result the two independent varibles influences simutneousy to the dependen variable.

ObjectiveAnalyse the transnational tobacco companies’ (TTCs) memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on illicit trade and how they could undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (Protocol).MethodsReview of tobacco industry documents and websites, reports, news and media items using standard snowball search methods.ResultsFacing increasing pressure from governments and the FCTC to address illicit tobacco trade during the late 1990s, TTCs entered into voluntary partnerships embodied in MoUs with governments’ law enforcement and customs agencies. One of the earliest known MoUs was between Philip Morris International and Italy in 1999. TTCs agreed among themselves to establish MoUs individually but use the Italian MoU as a basis to establish similar connections with other governments to pre-empt more stringent regulation of illicit trade. TTCs report to have signed over 100 MoUs since 1999, and promote them on their websites, in Corporate Social Responsibility reports and in the media as important partnerships to combat illicit tobacco trade. There is no evidence to support TTCs’ claims that these MoUs reduce illicit trade. The terms of these MoUs are rarely made public. MoUs are non-transparent partnerships between government agencies and TTCs, violating FCTC Article 5.3 and the Protocol. MoUs are not legally binding so do not create an accountability system or penalties for non-compliance, rendering them ineffective at controlling illicit trade.ConclusionGovernments should reject TTC partnerships through MoUs and instead ratify and implement the FCTC and the Protocol to effectively address illicit trade in tobacco products.

Why is Mexico is third sector underdeveloped? Despite the importance of this question, there is no persuasive answer. The usual mono-causal explanations -such as historical trajectory or lack of civic culture- are inadequate. A better way to address this question is applying the concept of an enabling environment for civil society. This encompasses empowering legal and fiscal frameworks, an effective accountability system, adequate institutional capacity for organizations, and availability of resources. The article offers an assessment of where Mexico stands in relation to these five components and argues that on each count they are unfavorable and - or underdeveloped. In addition, the author argues for including a sixth element: the cultural context for philanthropy and civil society. Based on original survey results, he demonstrates that key values and habits inhibit efforts to strengthen civil society and must be taken into account in any effort to understand or change the status quo. The article concludes with a reflection on how Mexican civil society can begin to change its unfavorable context, beginning with the need for stronger mechanisms for greater accountability on the part of organizations.

Standardized testing remains the predominant proficiency measure for students and schools, placing teacher and student focus on test-prep and lower order skills while maintaining achievement gaps that penalize underserved students. The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Assessment seeks to close this gap and change assessment measures on a state level by training teachers to become leaders in implementing student-centered performance assessments and encouraging state legislators to consider alternative, forward-thinking accountability systems.

Autonomy and accountability of public agencies are two sides of the same coin, yet often they are examined separately and at only one point in time. This contribution therefore examines the interaction between accountability and autonomy over time. It does so in the context of a European Union agency, the European Police Office (Europol), the creation of which has been the subject of much contestation and discussion in terms of its possibility to wield autonomy and escape accountability. The contribution looks at de jure aspects of both autonomy and accountability, but moves beyond a strictly formal analysis and investigates actual practices. Drawing on extensive document analysis and 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews with key agency officials as well as members of the relevant accountability forums, this contribution shows that tailored accountability arrangements, which are acceptable to the actors involved, reinforce autonomy, whereas an inappropriate and contested accountability system has the opposite effect, stifling autonomous development, as seems to have been the case with regard to Europol.

This special issue furthers the conversation begun in the August 2014 of edition of Education Policy Analysis Archives in the article Accountability for College and Career Readiness: Developing a New Paradigm by Linda Darling-Hammond, Gene Wilhoit, and Linda Pittenger. That paper posits that as schools across the country take on the challenge of preparing all children for success in college, career, and life, states must in turn move toward creating more aligned systems of assessment and accountability. The authors recommend, “an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and appropriate resources, so that all students regardless of background are prepared for both college and career when they graduate from high school” (p. 1). In this, the third of three focused volumes of EPAA, we hope to further that discussion and debate by focusing, one issue at a time, on each of the three elements of a truly responsible accountability system: 1) meaningful learning, 2) professional capacity and accountability, and 3) equitable and wisely used resources.

This special issue furthers the conversation begun in the August 2014 of edition of Education Policy Analysis Archives in the article Accountability for College and Career Readiness: Developing a New Paradigm by Linda Darling-Hammond, Gene Wilhoit, and Linda Pittenger. That paper posits that as schools across the country take on the challenge of preparing all children for success in college, career, and life, states must in turn move toward creating more aligned systems of assessment and accountability. The authors recommend, “an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and appropriate resources, so that all students regardless of background are prepared for both college and career when they graduate from high school” (p. 1). In this, the second of three focused volumes of EPAA, we hope to further that discussion and debate by focusing, one issue at a time, on each of the three elements of a truly responsible accountability system: 1) meaningful learning, 2) professional capacity and accountability, and 3) equitable and wisely used resources.

As schools across the country prepare for new standards under the Common Core, states are moving toward creating more aligned systems of assessment and accountability. This paper recommends an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and appropriate resources, so that all students regardless of background are prepared for both college and career when they graduate from high school. Drawing on practices already established in other states and on the views of policymakers and school experts, this paper proposes principles for effective accountability systems and imagines what a new accountability system could look like in an imagined “51st state” in the United States. While considerable discussion and debate will be needed before a new approach can take shape, this paper’s objective is to get the conversation started so the nation can meet its aspirations for preparing college- and career-ready students.

With the push for data-driven decision making in the current accountability system, evidence use becomes vital to the improvement of low-performing schools. In this exploratory case study, we utilize social network theory and methods to examine how evidence is diffused and brokered by the educational leaders (central office, area superintendents, and school site administrators) across a large urban district, focusing particularly on whether evidence reaches leaders in low-performing schools. Our results suggest that very sparse data use ties exist across the entire district and that principals of underperforming schools, who are arguably in most need of evidence for improvement, are often disconnected from the overall data use structure. Furthermore, area superintendents, who are formally tasked with being the “source” of advice for data, are not always the most sought leaders within their areas. In addition, the communication patterns indicate a tendency to seek advice from outside the area for brokers in both formal and informal networks. Findings of this study give importance to the role of brokerage in districts’ evidence use for improving low-performing schools.

This paper reviews the experiences of intergovernmental fiscal systems (IGFS) to look for possible lessons for how Official Development Assistance (ODA) is delivered. Specifically, it compares IGFS and ODA in two specific respects. The first is the proportion of public resources that central governments make available to sub-national governments on a conditional basis, and how that compares with the proportion of non-earmarked ODA given to low income countries. The second is the role of performance outcome in resource allocation to sub-national governments and how that compares with the role of performance in ODA, particularly multilateral ODA allocation. The comparisons show that: (i) the share of earmarked ODA is more than three times higher than that of conditional grants in intergovernmental systems, suggesting that donors in ODA rely more on earmarking to influence the spending decisions of the recipient countries than their federal governments do on conditional grants to induce policy changes in their own sub-national governments; and (ii) none of the OECD countries currently use outcome measures in determining resource allocation to their sub-national governments for a variety of good reasons, and the recent debate as to whether multilateral ODA allocation should be based on development outcomes seems to ignore this experience.

Organizational control systems are a central phenomenon, yet despite their significance, research is dominated by top-down command-and-control approaches and contingent models of goaldirected behavior. This paper introduces and empirically explores the concept of accountability system: the set of norms and practices an organization puts in place to assess, reward, and sanction the work engagement and output of an individual. Data from seven organizations are used to explore whether organizations provide distinct, useful accountability systems for individuals working in complex, knowledge activities. The findings show that organizations are struggling to set up accountability systems around the notion of contribution what would help to direct attention and mobilize effort beyond the boundaries of hierarchical control systems.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires that schools make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) towards the goal of having 100 percent of their students become proficient by year 2013-14. Through simulation analyses of Maine and Kentucky school performance data collected during the 1990s, this study investigates how feasible schools would have met the AYP targets if the mandate had been applied in the past with “uniform averaging (rolling averages)” and “safe harbor” options that have potential to help reduce the number of schools needing improvement or corrective action. Contrary to some expectations, the applications of both options would do little to reduce the risk of massive school failure due to unreasonably high AYP targets for all student groups. Implications of the results for the NCLB school accountability system and possible ways to make the current AYP more feasible and fair are discussed.

Over the past decade, several states have created comprehensive accountability systems designed to increase student learning in public schools. These accountability systems are based on "high-stakes" standardized testing of a state curriculum. Rewards and interventions for local educators are based largely upon students' performance on these tests. Using the recent accountability reforms in Georgia as a backdrop, this article considers the role of local flexibility within such an accountability system--flexibility over paperwork, resources, personnel, and curriculum for local educators. Increased flexibility for local educators is not merely an option in a world where local educators are subject to a comprehensive accountability system imposed by a state--it is a requirement for success. We make a case for providing local flexibility and provides a discussion regarding types of flexibility, vehicles for granting flexibility, and who should receive flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on the Islamic accountability in the zakat funds management. The in-depth understanding over the accountability system and practices of zakat institutions may assist to identify the underlying factors that lead to inefficiency in zakat distribution. The article is primarily theoretical and conceptual in nature. The paper discusses the suitability and applicability of the Islamic accountability framework in the zakat funds management. The Islamic accountability framework presented here, however, is an early attempt in understanding and assessing the effectiveness of accountability practices in managing zakat funds.