Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

ecording property, plant and equipment; recording funds; and accounting for
expenditure overheads ratio.
Accountability should be at the heart of „why‟ charitable organisations are acting as
they do. Thus accountability is the theoretical lens through which interviewees‟ actions
will be clarified. For as Messner (2009, p. 919) says:
Sometimes the reasons why somebody has taken a particular course of action
are not entirely clear to the person herself.
It will be up to this study to identify the reasons for charities‟ actions through the lens of
three different concepts of accountability. First, the importance of financial
accountability, in particular professional accountability as reflected in the production of
GAAP compliant financial statements, will be covered in Chapter Six. Also in relation
to fiduciary accountability in relation to compliance with legislation and the need for
monitoring will be covered in Chapter Seven. Contrasting financial accountability is
performance accountability, which is associated with efficiency and effectiveness; will
be covered in Chapter Eight.
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