Examples Of Public Service Accountability

Public Service Accountability Issue

A more recent example of a public service accountability comes from the Atlanta, Georgia area. According to an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which highlights how a large-sized water main break brought allegations of mismanagement in the public spectrum (Mitchell, Edwards, & Schrade, 2018). The article itself mentions several problems wrong with the agency that oversees the water supply for City of Atlanta known as the Dekalb Watershed Management Department. The problems that the article highlights relate to the leader of the department resigning and alleging that top county officials blocked him from protecting citizens from water pollution (Mitchell et al., 2018). However, the problem mentions

If the citizen advisory panel was able to properly work with the agency and make sure the citizens best interest was being carried out, then they could have notice and maybe prevented the problems that the agency faces. Next if the head of the agency could do what they where hired for then they could have made the needed fixes the agency needed including making sure the money budgeted to the agency was being used properly and not as a slush fund for the county officials as what was alleged. Lastly, it seems that whole system of governances that oversees the agency is broken and needs to be changed, if was to happen then problems at the agency including issues between the head of the agency and the county could have been prevented. While if these fixes could have been in place in the start then this agency might not have any accountability

One way it seems to rectify the issues include establishing a type of progress accountability system which Kettl states “is concern with how agencies perform their task” (2017). If there was system like this in place, then the problems that this agency faces could be eliminated like making sure they are preventing water pollution and issues between county officials and the department leadership are being resolved. Next, the problems facing the agency could also be rectified by allowing the citizen advisory panel like the agency has, more power and roles in the governing of the agency. This is because in most cases the citizenry can be a beneficial partner in making that the agency is doing what it is charged with and making sure that the money budgeted to the agency is being use for it purpose which is the management of water for Dekalb County. The ways stated above to rectify the problems faced by the Dekalb County Watershed Management Department are a good start to fix the many problems that they face when it comes to accountability however it does seem that many more are