Strengthening Accountability of Charitable Organisations: A Literature Review

Over the last 20 years, non-profit organizations (NPOs) have become important providers of social services in many countries. They make up a significant proportion of organizational activities in many countries and tend to manage a sizeable proportion of human, financial, and other resource of the society. However, there are concerns that accounting and accountability practices in this kind of organizations are less than satisfactory. Consequently, there is a growing amount of literature of non-profit organizations that attempts to understand accounting and accountability practices of such organizations The purpose of this paper is to gain understanding of the accounting and accountability of non-profit organizations by evaluating the accounting and accountability researches literature on non-profit organizations. Various aspects of the concept of accountability and it's related topics will be discussed in this paper. This includes a brief explanation of the nature of non-profit organization and increasing demand for accountability in non-profit organization. The meaning, concept and the principles of accountability in non-profit organization will also be discussed. The paper will also elaborate the issues of trust, government regulation and the role of financial reporting in enhancing accountability of non-profit organization.