iBusiness, 2010, 2, 123-127 doi:10.4236/ib.2010.22015 Published Online June 2010 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ib) Copyright © 2010 SciRes. iB 123 Public Accountability: Implications of the Conspiratorial Relationship between Political Appointees and Civil Servants in Nigeria Lanre Olu-Adeyemi 1 , Tomola Marshal Obamuyi 2 1 Department of Political Science & Public Administration, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Nigeria; 2 Department of Banking & Finance, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Nigeria. Email: lanreoluadeyemi@yahoo.co.uk, tomolaobamuyi@yahoo.co.uk Received October 23 rd , 2009; revised February 6 th , 2010; accepted March 7 th , 2010. ABSTRACT The paper focuses on the conspiratorial relationship between Accounting Officers and Political Appointees in Nigeria and how this merge has affected public accountability. The conspiratorial relationship has led to flagrant and deliber- ate abuse of best practices and due process all in a bid to steal public funds. The absence of public accountability has also increased the chances of corrupt practices by both the political appointees and civil servants. This paper advocates administrative reform and good governance, encompassing public accountability to ensure that the people are held accountable for their behaviours as a deterrent to corrupt practices. Keywords: Accountability, Political Appointees, Civil Servants, Corruption 1. Introduction In contemporary Nigeria, government has ultimately be- come inseparable from the day to day life of the citizens. This is because government is now involved in the over- all social and economic development as against its tradi- tional role of mere maintaining law and order. Unfortu- nately, the resources at the disposal of governments con- tinue to dwindle, meaning that governments have to re- order her priorities to meet the needs of the society. The implication is that both the civil servants and the political office holders must cooperate to ensure the achievement of sustainable financial and economic development. They must be responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people and be held accountable for their actions and inactions. However, for some times, the influence of the political appointees has made the civil servants to neglect the is- sue of accountability in the work place. The World De- velopment Report (2004) places accountability succinctly at the centre of public reform and public service delivery [1]. Public accountability measures the degree to which the community can control (hold accountable) the be- haviour of public agents through political institutions [2]. Essentially, public accountability mainly regards matters in the public domain, such as the spending of public funds, the exercise of public authorities, or the conduct of public institutions [3]. Generally, the goals of all public accountability measures are to guarantee that public money is spent most judiciously to ensure that the public actually benefits from public finance. There are many dimensions of accountability found in literature. For in- stance, a distinction can be found between accountability and transparency [4], and between accountability and responsiveness and participation [5]. However, account- ability and controllability may be equated, since an agent is accountable to a principal if the principal can exercise control over the agent [6]. Whatever the dimension from which accountability is seen, the importance is in forcing administrators to trace connections between the past, present and future [7]. In order to strengthen the accountability requirements of public sector spending in Nigeria, government had put in place many agencies to overcome the issues of corrup- tion and wasteful spending. These anti-corruption agen- cies include the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the budget, due process monitoring unit, which are expected to serve as the watch dogs for public officers who may want to defraud the nation and enrich themselves illegally and hence hold them accountable to the public. For instance, the activities of EFCC have been summarized as follows [8]: