Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
Developing an Accountability Disclosure Index for Statutory Bodies: A Proposal
Nur Barizah Abu Bakar
College of Business, Alfaisal University, P.O. Box 50927, Riyadh, 11533, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Tel.: +966112157969
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 2016 8:885-899
Received: September ‎17, ‎2015 | Accepted: October ‎30, ‎2015 | Published: April 15, 2016
Abstract
This study proposes a comprehensive disclosure index to measure the extent of disclosure of accountability information in statutory bodies’ annual reports. The index is driven by the public accountability paradigm which establishes that a wide range of information need to be provided to various stakeholders. It is developed primarily based on a comprehensive review of the public sector disclosure literature, various reporting requirements and guidelines and a review of existing reporting practices. A comprehensive disclosure index which may be referred to as Accountability Disclosure Index (ADI) comprising 110 disclosure items was constructed. It consists of five categories (overview, governance, financial, performance and others) and 24 subcategories and adopted a binary and unweighted method of scoring. It has passed through the internal validity, reliability and pilot test.The index-either in its full form or with minor modifications-can be employed by future researchers across other equivalent semi-governmental bodies. The index can also be used by public managers to self-assess their disclosure level and benchmark against other entities. Also, stakeholders can evaluate the level of disclosure of statutory bodies, which in turn suggests the level of transparency and accountability discharged by these entities.
Keywords:
Accountability, annual report, disclosure, index, statutory bodies, public sector, transparency,
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