Charity umbrellas should lobby against ever greater accountability requirements, delegates heard at the Acevo conference yesterday.

Speaking at the event, Helmut Anheier, professor of sociology and dean at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, warned that undue emphasis on accountability could be detrimental and take away from charities' delivery rather than add to it.

“I’m concerned that continual emphasis on good governance and accountability will put not-for-profits on the defensive, making it very difficult for them to meet expectations,” he said.

Anheier blamed the ‘audit society’ for the greater emphasis on accountability. “More and more mechanisms are needed to reassure us that things are ok,” he said.

He warned that an emphasis on accountability undermined the reasons for which not-for-profits existed and pushed them into a political position.

“Organisations like Acevo and other representatives of the not-for-profit sector should undertake a proactive campaign to stem against rising emphasis on accountability and propose something else instead – take Koppell’s dimensions.”

Jonathan Koppell’s ‘five dimensions of accountability’ are transparency, legitimacy, controllability, responsibility and responsiveness.