Title: Developing the modified accountability disclosure index for local governments

Authors: Dayang Hafiza Abang Ahmad; Corina Joseph; Roshima Said

Addresses: Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sarawak Branch, 93400 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia ' Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kedah Branch, 08400 Merbok, Kedah, Malaysia

Abstract: Citizens desire for transparent information urges the government to improve its delivery of services through information disclosure. High corruption cases are reported among public officials resulting from low disclosure of accountability practices among local governments. This paper aimed to explain the development of a disclosure index, the modified accountability disclosure index (MoADi), for local governments in Malaysia. MoADi acts as a comprehensive checklist to assess the extent of accountability practices disclosed on the websites of Malaysian local governments. MoADi checklist includes seven categories of information: overview, management, core services, customer management, presentation, delivery and others. MoADi consists of 100 checklist items which adopts dichotomous and unweighted scoring method. Thorough steps were involved in the development of MoADi. MoADi helps local governments to regularly monitor the accountability practices prior to the auditing process by the authoritative agencies. This paper contributes to the existing literature on disclosure of accountability practices in public sector.

Keywords: disclosure; accountability practices; local governments; index; websites; public sector; accountability disclosure index.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSPM.2022.126235

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management, 2022 Vol.10 No.2/3, pp.302 - 322

Received: 25 May 2019
Accepted: 23 Feb 2020
Published online: 18 Oct 2022 *

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