An Essay on Government Accountability

It is in human nature to judge people, whether it may be based on an action or a first impression, preventing us from truly trusting anyone. The concept of trust has never been an easy one to come by, it has to be earned. Sometimes, that doesn’t prove to be enough either, a single mistake has the power to disintegrate every single inch of trust a person has, and it won’t come as a surprise when I tell you that humans make mistakes, we tend to lie to avoid the consequences of our actions without thinking about what the outcome would look like.

Analogously, the righteous government body that we built seems to make us feel so strong and vulnerable at the same time. The government has always been instructed to be liable to the mistakes they made, in fact, it was so important to us that we felt the need to appoint a Government Accountability Office to ensure that government officials would never step out of line. But as the years progressed, the clear stream of reason behind the making of the Office turned blurry.

Predominantly, accountability is the key element of a good government. It is about the relationship between the country and its citizens, and the magnitude to which the officials are answerable for their actions. It is liability, culpability, and the expectation of account-giving-but that does not stop the government from making mistakes- as I mentioned earlier- government officials are people and often make mistakes - but that doesn’t stop the citizens from going against the government in a heartbeat. What people need to understand is that sometimes the best way to deal with a problem is to leave it alone. And if we take a look at the opposite side of the spectrum, citizens are manipulated in governmental schemes all the time,whether it’s election day, or the Fourth of July, the government finds a way to go against and behind the backs of trusting citizens, without considering the consequences. And then, the people are expected to cooperate with rules and regulations - as an ideal citizen is supposed to.

Tell me. How do they expect the people to have faith in them, if they don’t even trust their own people?

The answer lies in the reason as to why the government is unfaithful to the people who helped form it in the first place. Government accountability has always been an underrated but controversial subject, from the conspiracies about the government trying to exert complete control on the world, to the blinding facts about the corruption that constantly ruptures the growth of the nation, people believe what they wish to believe, what makes more sense to them, what appeals to them, even if it is far from the truth. If we want the government to answer our questions, then we need to ask them systematically, instead of complaining about how we lack answers that we deserve. This was the reason why they built a Government Accountability Office back in 1921. This legislative branch was developed to provide evaluation, auditing, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It has been coined the supreme audit institution of the federal government of the United States. The entire purpose of GAO is to satisfy the ongoing doubts the citizens have about the honesty of the officials that claim to protect us. The GAO provides the citizens with a proper procedure through which a person can bring light to the faults of the government that the Office might have previously missed. They even run a website that can be used to do the same. So, even though it may seem difficult to believe the officials when they say that everything they do is for the people, it is, in most cases, true.

In conclusion, all that the government requires is the cooperation from its citizens and the people, on the other hand, want the State to remember the true meaning of democracy as it is for, by and most importantly, of the people. The most practical way to facilitate credence and concurrence between the two would be to understand each other’s perspective in order to join forces for betterment of the State. After all, this was the reason why we chose democracy in the first place as this would ensure peace and prosperity amongst all the citizens of a nation.