Accountability as an Object of Legal Assessment

Accountability is the most important function of public administration, which involves the creation of sustainable and transparent rules in the interaction of government bodies and civil society. At the same time, the implementation of this function in the practice of municipal administration is not given due attention. This is manifested in the insufficient number of control parameters presented in the legislation and used to more fully ensure the responsibility of the authorities to the population. The aim of the article is to assess legal aspects of the accountability function at the municipal level. The stated aim involves solving a number of research problems, including identifying the main features of accountability, identifying the features of accountability at the municipal level, and formulating criteria for the implementation of this function. As research methods, comparative analysis was used, with the help of which a comparison of the accountability function at the state and local levels was carried out. The object of the study was the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 28, 2008 No. 607 «On the assessment of the effectiveness of the activities of local government bodies of municipalities, municipal, urban districts and municipal districts» and 131-FL «On the general principles of organizing local self-government in the Russian Federation». The main result of the study is the asymmetry in the implementation of the accountability function in the activities of state and municipal authorities, identified on the basis of the analysis of regulatory documents. This asymmetry is manifested in the obvious dominance of state parameters of accountability of local authorities compared to their responsibility to the population. Overcoming the asymmetry is possible by expanding the responsibility of local government to the population, establishing simple and transparent rules for maintaining document flow and reporting, as well as introducing new digital technologies.

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