Accountability has several meanings. It is often used synonymously with words such as answerability, responsibility, blame, liability and others. As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in both the public and corporate worlds.

Accountability implies a concern for the welfare of those with whom one works or serves. At its root, accountability involves either the expectation or assumption of account-giving behavior. In politics, accountability is an important factor in securing good governance. Accountability differs from transparency in that it only enables feedback after a decision or action, while transparency enables feedback before or during a decision or action.

This week, The Conservative Government of Stephen Harper introduced its “Accountability Act”, one of its five legislative priorities along with GST reductions, childcare payments, crime and hospital waiting times.

Accountability is a two way street. The Accountability Act is a reaction to the Liberal’s Sponsorship scandal but the new Prime Minister seems to think that accountability is something that should not apply to him.

In the recent election, the now Prime Minister promised an elected Senate. Mr. Harper’s Minister of Public Works is a non-elected Senator who does not have a seat in the House of Commons and is not accountable to Members of Parliament. The Minister, Michael Fortier is a lawyer from Montreal. He was Chair of Mr. Harper’s leadership campaign for the new Conservative Party in 2003, and during the last federal election, he was co-chair of Mr. Harper’s national election campaign. The Department of Public Works was at the centre of the Sponsorship scandal.

The Accountability Act would ban Cabinet ministers and their staff from lobbying government for five years. It does not prevent Conservatives who have already served in Parliament or in Parliamentary staff positions from lobbying Mr. Harper’s government. Mr. Harper’s Minister of Defense is a former lobbyist for the arms industry.

Will he be accountable to the arms industry or to the Canadian public?

Answerability is a component of accountability. Mr. Harper has muzzled his Cabinet. They are not allowed to speak to or answer to the media without his approval and without advance clearance of their remarks. On Thursday, Mr. Harper or one of his ministers muzzled a senior public servant who was ready to launch a book related to the environment.

Who knows what’s in his book but it probably supports the Kyoto Accord and that would be anathema to the Harper Government. Mr. Harper refuses to take questions from the media. Indeed, on Wednesday when he couldn’t control who would ask him questions, he walked out of a media conference.

His actions contradict the principle of accountability.

The Accountability Act would reform the financing of political parties, strengthen the role of the Ethics Commissioner, toughen the Lobbyists Registration Act and give a new Commissioner of Lobbying enhanced powers to investigate and enforce them. The Act would create the position of Parliamentary Budget Officer to provide objective analysis to Members of Parliament and parliamentary committees concerning the state of the nation’s finances.

It would introduce a uniform process for appointing Agents and Officers of Parliament, appoint an independent Procurement Auditor to provide additional oversight for the procurement process; appoint an Independent Advisor to conduct a full review of public opinion research, provide protection to whistleblowers that disclose government wrongdoing and create a Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal.

It would provide public-sector employees with access to legal counsel and provide a $1,000 reward to public-service employees who expose wrongdoing in the workplace.

It would strengthen the power of the Auditor General by expanding the reach and scope of the Auditor General’s investigative powers and bolstering the internal audit function within departments and Crown corporations. It would also create a Director of Public Prosecutions, outside the Department of Justice, with the authority to conduct criminal prosecutions under federal law.

It would appear from this vantage point that the Act runs contrary to one of the Conservatives' key election pledges: to limit spending growth in departments and agencies.

The bill either strengthens or creates seven senior positions in the public service with such heady titles as director of public prosecutions and the public sector integrity commissioner.

There will be a beefed-up conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, with a required judicial background, to watch over MPs and Senators. A director of public prosecutions will chase down bureaucrats who defraud the system.

It looks to me like a lot more money and resources will be spent in Ottawa to fund a team of unelected officials or underground spies who will serve as members of Mr. Harper’s secret ‘Accountability Police’. The one gift to MPs in all of this is that their new parliamentary budget officer will be able to advise their committees on financial issues.

As far as I can tell, there's only one measure in Mr. Harper’s Accountability Act that will directly affect the average Canadian. Individuals will only be able to donate $1,000 a year to a political party or an individual candidate. That’s down from the current $5,000 limit. I suspect that will draw the ire of most New Brunswickers.

If enacted, a majority of the proposed reforms in the Act would escape the oversight of the Access to Information Act. It may indeed encourage further government secrecy, particularly among public servants. The real danger in this Act may lie in the fact it could go unchallenged by the opposition parties.

The Liberals walk on accountability eggshells. The NDP and the Bloc won’t want to be seen opposing anything as pure in its intent as an Accountability Act. The public will probably react with a yawn.

The devil will be in the details.

Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and business owner operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic.