Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

Baard, & McNair, 2009). Other authors have theorised on the concept of accountability
(Alam, 2006; Messner, 2009; Roberts, 2009).
The importance of accountability has also been seen amongst accounting bodies, with
the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, the English Accounting Standards
Board and a number of other European accounting standard-setters publishing a brief
paper discussing the rationale for including as a separate objective of financial
reporting, accountability to stakeholders. There is a broad consensus amongst the
majority of the respondents that the stewardship/accountability objective should be a
separate objective of financial reporting (Accounting Standards Board, 2007b). The
relevance of accountability in the charities sector is considered next.
5.2.1 Accountability in the Charities Sector
Accountability is seen as important for the charities sector in maintaining the confidence
and financial support of the public by giving an account of charities‟ activities.
However, as with the general definition of accountability, in the context of charities
Kreander, Beattie & McPhail (2009, p. 166) make a similar observation on the
challenge of defining accountability:
With the findings of this study, it is clear that charity accountability is complex,
nuanced and not fully explained by existing theorisations.
Many authors have tried to define accountability within a charitable context (Agyemang
et al., 2009; Ahmed & Wickramsinghe, 2009; Aimers & Walker, 2008; Archambault,
Gariazzo, Anheier, & Salamon, 1999; Crofts, 2008; Dellaportas et al., 2008; Eisenberg,
2005; Flack, 2007a; Fowler, 2008; Jayasinghe & Soobaroyen, 2009; Keating &
Frumkin, 2003; Nowland-Foreman, 2000; van Staden & Heslop, 2009; Watts et al.,
2009). Other authors have attempted to define the concept of accountability within the
different aspects of the wider not-for-profit sector (Bracci, 2009; Connolly & Dhanani,
2009; Connolly & Hyndman, 2003; Cordery & Baskerville, 2005; Ebrahim, 2003;
Fishman, 2007; Flack & Ryan, 2004; O'Sullivan & O'Dwyer, 2009; Samkin &
Schneider, 2006; Steccolini, 2004; Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2006b).
Stemming from these definitions is the notion of: being responsible for one‟s action;
and the need to give an account to „someone‟. In „for-profit‟ organisations there is a
clear answerability towards shareholders. However, whilst charities may have a large
variety of stakeholders (section 5.3) there is not always „someone‟ to whom charities
must explicitly account, especially if they are not a registered charity. Therefore, the
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