A recent post elicited a request, “Please share your thoughts on how you see the importance of performance data in accountability”. I make no claim to have expertise in the theory and science of performance management but accountability is undoubtedly linked to measures of performance. As is my wont, I went to the dictionary for the a definition of the verb, “account” and found “to furnish a justifying analysis or justification”. It follows thus that accountability is the state of being accountable i.e subject to giving account. In my initial post I had listed accountability as a characteristic of good governance. I used the word more in an ethical sense…
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Endless meetings and Life … Reflections on a poem
The poem translated from the original Portuguese is attributed to a Brazilian poet, Mario de Andrade, although there is some doubt if he was the author as there is indeed regarding the title of the poem, “My Soul has a Hat” “I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live by than I have lived so far. I feel like a child who won a pack of candies. At first, he ate them with pleasure, but when he realized that there was little left, he began to taste them intensely. I have no time for endless meetings where the statutes, rules, procedures, and internal regulations are…
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Thoughts on Governance and Leadership … what has gone wrong?
I have not posted on Househam on Health for some time for two reasons. Firstly, as with many others I am sure, I have been shocked, disillusioned and depressed by the scandal that has unfolded at the highest level in the South African public health sector. Secondly, I have been engaged in a project to assess financial management in a provincial department in South Africa which has been both an interesting and challenging experience. These events have led me to reflect again on a question that I was asked some time ago and one that I have asked myself many times. What are the differences between a department of health…