Does accountability enhance service delivery?

Abstract

This article assesses whether the Local Government Council\xe2\x80\x99s Scorecard Initiative, implemented in \nUganda since 2009, achieved its intended impact of enhancing service delivery by providing information \non the performance of local government. We analyse a district-level panel dataset (2005\xe2\x80\x932016) with \nadministrative data, as well as Afrobarometer data on citizen perceptions (2005\xe2\x80\x932017). Empirically, \nwe exploit the phasing in of the scorecard for a meticulous difference-in-difference framework with \ndistrict-specific trends. The results show some small measurable impacts of the scorecard along the \nso-called \xe2\x80\x98long route of accountability\xe2\x80\x99 on public service delivery. Scorecard districts appear to spend less \nof their budgets in comparison with non-scorecard districts. This points to greater budgetary restraint of \nlocal government councils in scorecard districts. Although no direct impacts on service delivery can be \ndetected, districts with more electoral competition in their constituencies perform better on one \nservice-delivery indicator, the primary school leaving exam pass rate. Concomitantly, the scorecard \nimpacts on perceptions of corruption, as citizens of scorecard districts perceive the local councillors as \nless corrupt compared to citizens of non-scorecard districts. This result can be interpreted as an indica- \ntion of the trust-enhancing effect of government scorecards and civic engagement. Overall, our results \nprovide a quantitative contribution to the literature on accountability by demonstrating that civil society \nreporting mechanisms about the performance of political representatives only trickle down slowly to \nimproved services. The findings suggest that the sustained implementation of instruments to provide cit- \nizens with more information about their political representatives may have a positive impact on civil \nsociety perceptions as well as relevant political and policy outcomes. Like earlier research, we find that \nimpacts also depend on political competitiveness, thus highlighting the positive role of democracy. \n\xc3\x93 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd