Making local government accountable

To keep local government employees and officials honest .... Internally, we have our supervisors checking subordinates, Managers overseeing supervisors, directors overseeing managers, the GM overseeing directors and councillors holding the GM accountable. We induct our staff with our Code of Conduct for local government employees, we have an internal reporting policy designed to protect 'whistleblowers', internal audit, external audit, we have declarations of interest registers, a gift register, independent tender review, checks and balances built into computer systems and payment systems. We have corporate development training and review to continuously improve the way we do things such as the move towards electronic tendering and contract disclosure.

Externally we have our professional associations to provide us with good practice tools and for independent oversight we have the ombudsman, the local government pecuniary interest and disciplinary tribunal, the department of local government inspectors. We can be 'surcharged' (pay -up from our own pockets), for any act of negligence!. Occasionally, there may be a sting operation by the independent commission against corruption. The courts pour over subpoena documents from councils. Agencies check up on the expenditure of funds with strings attached, to ensure each string has been tied and the ACCC hold us accountable as do local newspapers, local radio, TV's stateline, bloggers as well as the residents and applicants attending council meetings to 'keep an eye on local government'.


To keep state governments honest, we have the bear pit.
A few careers have been cut short of late under intense scrutiny under NSW parliamentary privilege and media exposure. Health care, transport planning, education all a mess but there is always Canberra to blame. Little accountability - the auditor general's office complains and complains but little progress is ever made.


To keep the federal government honest, .... Ministers go to extraordinary legal lengths to prevent information coming into the public's attention through Freedom of Information applications by the media. Ministers have revealed they relied on their well paid, well connected mates at AWB to tell them the truth. They didn't. No back up plan - despite the indications that Sadam was profiting from the arrangements for trucking and inspection. Australia's biggest corruption scandal followed, dragging Australia's international reputation as an honest broker, down in the process. Commissioner Cole seemed to exonerate the politicians and the federal civil servants - they were, after all, outside his inquiry's terms of reference. Where is the accountability supposed to fall under our current system of government?

Conclusion
It seems accountability under our current system of government is inversely related to the government's power and resources. Given local government's superior (but never perfect) systems of checks and balances, and over a hunded years experience of working under oversight, doesn't it make sense to divest to local governments more power and resources? At the local level at least, greater resources goes hand in hand with greater scrutiny. If nothing else, the community grape vine will see to that.