Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

subset of good accountability practice or even a category of accountability. This is
illustrated by the European Foundation Centre and Council on Foundations (2007) who
consider good governance as one of the nine accountability practices needed for good
international philanthropy. This is also seen in Fishman‟s (2007) definition of
accountability which encompasses six different aspects including good governance.
Governance as a subset of accountability is also evident in Keating & Frumkin‟s (2003)
and Flack & Ryan‟s (2004) definitions of accountability.
Hence, governance is seen as an integral part of accountability, for without it charities
will not maintain the confidence and financial support of the public (Palmer & Randall,
2002). Next, how the different concepts of accountability are analysed in this research
will be considered.
5.6 Concepts of accountability
In this research the focus is on the theoretical nature of accountability as it relates to
charities, which was discussed in section 5.2 however, some of the common concepts of
accountability used recently in studies of charities conceptualise the different concepts
of accountability, and their inclusion in this research needs to be considered (Adams,
2004; Agyemang et al., 2009; Ahmed & Wickramsinghe, 2009; Association of
Chartered Certified Accountants, 2006; Connolly & Dhanani, 2009; Connolly &
Hyndman, 2003; Cordery, 2008; Cordery & Baskerville, 2005; Dellaportas et al., 2008;
Dhanani, 2009; Flack & Ryan, 2004; Hyndman & McDonnell, 2009; International
Federation of Accountants, 2008; Jayasinghe & Soobaroyen, 2009; Keating & Frumkin,
2003; Lindkvist & Llewellyn, 2003; Messner, 2009; Narayan, 2006; O'Dwyer &
Unerman, 2008; Steccolini, 2004; Stewart, 1984).
Some of the concepts of accountability highlighted in Table 5-4 are interchangeable and
others overlap, so their use in this research needs to be clearly articulated. Stewart
(1984) suggests that concepts of accountability can be set out as a „ladder of
accountability‟ ranging from accountability by standards to accountability by
judgement.
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