Linking Accountability and Transparency: The Procedures for Awarding Public Contracts in Switzerland

Accountability and transparency are of growing importance in contemporary governance. The prevalence of both the concepts has been growing, presenting challenges to administrations. Today, transparency and accountability are used together repeatedly. Taking a normative point of view, the two concepts are often associated with each other because nobody stands against them. However, the relationship between the two has been studied only by a few scholars with preliminary approaches. A few scholars have developed theoretical frameworks linking the two concepts in various ways, using variables such as soft and hard accountability, active and passive transparency, or the content of information. From a conceptual point of view, transparency may reinforce so-called ‘horizontal’ accountability, which means accountability from the administration towards citizens and other stakeholders. It follows a growing trend towards ‘horizontalisation’ in government, in which administrations have opened up and moved closer to citizens. Transparency thus plays a supporting role in strengthening this type of accountability. It also produces indirect effects on ‘vertical’ accountability – in the hierarchy between organisations, elected representatives and the government. Based on these statements, our contribution will assess the links between the two concepts in the light of a concrete case. First, the various existing theoretical approaches will be detailed, with a particular focus on the frameworks linking the two concepts. Secondly, the case context will be described. We have selected a specific example focussing on the procedures for awarding the public contracts in Switzerland. In this regard, interviews conducted with civil servants will help us to demonstrate the various difficulties met by practitioners on a daily basis. The data gathered will be used through a qualitative approach and will serve as relevant illustrations of the case. Moreover, an assessment of the practical validity of the frameworks developed in the theoretical part will be provided. As a result, this paper aims at redefining the relationship between the two concepts from a practical point of view. Finally, it will reconsider the latter relationship under the prism of both the theoretical and practical insights.