Accountability “is an integral part of government and public management” (Kakumba &Flourie, 2007:651). Accountability involves being answerable for the decisions or actions. Hope (2005:296) remarked that “transparency is closely associated with the successful implementation of good governance and the achievement of sustainable development”. A public official or public servant is held legally accountable to fulfill the terms of the contract related to his or her professional services under the rule of law on the behalf of public interest. Hence, accountability refers to the obligation of public officials to give a report on how they used the public resources and as they answer for their failure to meet the stated performance objectives (Armstrong, 2005:1). According to Kakumba & Flourie (2007:651) there are three key reasons for accountability, especially in the public organization: (a) to ensure control of abuse and misuse of public power; (b) to ensure effective use of public resources and adherence to procedural law and public service values; (c) to encourage learning and continuous improvement in governance and public management. Mostly, public leaders in South of Sub Saharan Africa tend to see their public positions as person inheritance property, that they often struggle to secure by “the selective distribution of favors and material benefits to loyal followers who are regarded and treated as clients” (Hope2005:298). Under this patrimonial nature of public officials in African region, undermines good governance and inhibits the prospect of achieving sustainable development (Hope, 2005: 299). Therefore, the public officials entrusted with the power to serve the public interest and common good have to discharge their duties with accepted standards of ethics and conduct. Hope (2005:296) observed that the governance record in African region shows poor level of public accountability and hence needs to be improved. The transparency of decision-making and resource management for the public examination should be documented and accessible for the public inspection. Nevertheless, the situation of accountability and transparency from the literature review on Local Governments in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria was not effective. Hope (2005:296) observed that transparency in government means “reliable, relevant and timely information about the activities of government is available to the public”. Transparency enhances public trust and allows identification of possible acts of corruption and as well as permitting the time for corrective measures. Free availability and accessibility of an information to the people affected by the government’s decisions helps to reduce uncertainty and control corruption among public officials (Hope, 2005:296). The next discussion bases on equality, participation and merit system.
2.6.3 Participation and inclusiveness
Participation as a principle of good governance includes conducting free and fair elections, ensuring that all citizens have a voice in their local public affairs. It is through the consultative process that diversity of views and voices within a social organization can be heard and taken into consideration in the process of collective decision-making. Participation allows the decisions to reflect truthfully and justly the needs of the members of the society.The public services should be inclusive and should serve all equally. This requires a basic recognition by public institutions and public officials of the reality of the oneness of humanity. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) Article 1, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The principle of inclusiveness relates to fundamental social justice in service to the common good. (http://www.readbag.com/who-medicines-areas-policy-goodgovernance-ethical-infrastructure). The next section deals with ethical principle of trustworthiness.
2.6.4 Person integrity and honest, truth and trust
Person integrity is the quality of being honesty and having strong moral principles. Honesty is so crucial in both public and private administration in managing the resources. For instance, stealing, the acceptance of bribes and lying are all forms of dishonesty that lead to corruption. Dishonest behavior by public officials creates public distrust towards the institutions that are supposed to serve that society (http://www.readbag.com/who-medicines-areas-policy-goodgovernance-ethical-infrastructure).
At the individual level, integrity is more than ethics; it is all about the character of the individual. It is those characteristics of an individual that are consistently considerate, compassionate, transparent, honest, and ethical. The characteristic of trust is closely associated with integrity. The individuals with personal integrity do consistently what is “right” and what is expected of them. They are reliable and predictable in dealing with others and with issues, and they are defenders of what is fair, just, and acceptable (http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10504.pdf).
2.6.5 Concern for the people
The public servants should fulfill the moral imperative by using their official position to serve the public interest. Both personal and institutional commitment to the core moral value of serving the common good is source of natural motivation to sustain the efforts and perseverance often needed to promote social transformation and human development. A significant role of moral leadership in the society has to do with constructing consensus on the shared core values that define the common good. The commitment to maintain the common good should be public official’s primary motive for combating corruption. Selfishness does not serve the common good. Service to the common good should be based on human development. Public services should respect human dignity. People should not be made fell ignorant or inferior when receiving services that are due to them. People should be served in way that truly respects and enhances their human dignity.
2.6.6 Efficient and effectiveness (Competency)
According to Ciulla (1995) as noted in Ciulla (2005:161), a good leader is an ethical and effective leader. The use of “good” here has two senses, morally good leadership and technically good leadership. It is immoral for a leader to be incompetent (Ciulla, 2011:235). The fulfillment of the role of trusteeship requires the efficient and effective use of public resources in the service of the public interest and the common good. There must a systematic monitoring and evaluation of the efficient delivery of services and their impact are very important responsibility of trusteeship. The issue of ethical leadership is inseparable from competency. Therefore, the figure below shows the relationship among variables of this framework.
Figure 2.1: Conceptual Framework
Source: Researcher Own Design (2015).
2.7 Summary
Among the four ethics theories as explored the above, deontological and utilitarian ethics seem to be more prominent in the sphere of public administration. To a large degree, both public service and professional ethics depend on both deontological and utilitarian ethics on decision-making. However, each of these four ethical theories maintained a different framework for ethical evaluations but not exclude each other and no one with absolute of what we know about practice and ethics. Thus, none of the above ethical theories provides the best way of resolving the ethical issues. Leaders who work in the public institutions especially in government sectors need to be grounded in ethical values and principles. Once theory argued is not to be adequate in the developing countries such as Tanzania. There was a need of conducting a study to investigate citizens’ perspectives on ethical leadership for good governance in Local Government Authorities. The next chapter discusses about research methodology.