ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORTING AS ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Raili M. Pollanen Carleton University

ABSTRACT

This study investigates performance reporting as an accountability mechanism in local government. It provides exploratory evidence on the extent to which local governments in two Canadian provinces report on nonfinancial performance, in addition to traditional financial performance, in their annual reports. In spite of some modest progress towards including nonfinancial performance information, most annual reports still focus on financial information. Municipalities in the Province of British Columbia provide somewhat more nonfinancial information, and those in the Province of Ontario exhibit significant improvement in the quantity and quality of reporting from 2008 to 2009. However, published annual reports for both years were available only for approximately 20 percent and 58 percent of the large and mid-sized Ontario and British Columbia municipalities, respectively. The lack of reporting requirement in Ontario and the lack of oversight and enforcement in British Columbia may contribute to this state of affairs, weakening accountability and jurisdictional comparisons. The results echo the shortcomings associated with government performance reporting initiatives in other jurisdictions, for example, Australia, United Kingdom (UK), and United States (US).