Re-locating accountability through technology: from bureaucratic to electronic government

The paper explores how e-government initiatives shape the location of accountability in public sector organizations. To do so it first identifies the location of accountability in relations, practices and values and then, drawing on Weber’s work, it situates it in the context of bureaucratic government. Afterwards, it critically reviews recent studies on e-government and illustrates how the implication of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) shapes the location of public sector accountability. The paper shows that e-government initiatives depersonalize officials’ work, circumscribe their discretion and inscribe an ephemeral character to the Office. It argues that these consequences bring about shifts in the relation between officials and citizens, in the practice of accounting and in the values that underpin such practices and relations. These shifts are not without consequences. They give a new meaning to the act of accounting in electronic government; one that sees accountability as an ICT-mediated relation between officials and citizens, conditioned upon the knowledge inscribed into the technology and serving business purposes and entrepreneurial values.