Accountability What is accountability? The obligation imposed by law or lawful order or regulation on an officer or other person for keeping accurate record of property, documents, or funds. The person having this obligation may or may not have actual possession of the property, documents, or funds. Accountability is concerned primarily with records, while responsibility is concerned primarily with custody, care, and safekeeping. Why is accountability important to the Army? Accountability is a very important part of an enlisted and a NCO’s job.
The enlisted soldier is responsible for all items issued to him weather it be a weapon, NVG’s, clothes, a vehicle, or another personal. Accountability of another personal is a very sensitive item, probably the most sensitive item for anyone. Accountability is also a way for a key leader to see that he has everyone he is responsible for. Accountability is being dependable-arriving to work and appointments on time, meeting deadlines, being in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing at the right time.
Morning formation is the most important formation of the day. It is made to get accountability of everyone and put out any information that needs to be dealt with. Without having accountability there is no knowledge of where everybody is or what’s going on. Accountability is extreamly important at this point of time, everyone is off doing other missions while the rest of us are still with the main group. With the holidays comimg up the importance of accountability will heighten even more.
With people going on leave and coming back off leave and others comeing off missions such as opfore and school, and trying to keep up with everyone and getting information out to everyone then accountability is that much more important. For the instance yesterday moring, i was late to accountability formation. Straight off from the weekend and no one knew where i was. A lot of things could have happend over the weekend and no one knew anything, all anyone knew was i was not where i was expost to be. If this was in a combat zone, there would be a more concern for my life.
My actions for that morning put concern on everyone in my chain of command, from section sgt. To platoon sgt. And all the way up to the 1st sgt. Being on time is very important. When I am late it makes everyone else run behind. It makes the whole day very hectic and then people get irratated easy. It would make things run much smoother if everyone was on time all the time. Being late is not only important in the army, but it is important everywhere. No matter where you work or what you do, you should always be on time.
If you work somewhere and you are late then its not fair to your employer. They are paying you to be working for them but you are not even there. It is important to respect your NCO. Your NCO tells you that you need to be on time, therefore you need to be on time. Your NCO is only trying to help you. They want what is best for you and the army, and what is best for the army, is best for you. They have worked hard to be higher ranking than you, and in that hard work has come experience and plenty of knowledge.
They wouldn’t be in that position if it wasn’t for them following simple rules . With everything said, being on time is important so that way you can be accounted for. If you are not accounted for then you putting your NCO and your chain of command in a lot of unnessary stress. Now they either have to track you down or wait for you to show up. You are also putting your self at risk for punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If this behavior becomes repeative then could possible result in a separation from the military and a less then honorable discharge.
If that may happen then you may not be able to get a high enough paying job to provide for you family and other expenses. A leader takes charge and takes accountability for all those who fall under his or her leadership. Personnel accountability is critical in the event of a disaster or national emergency. Ensuring strict accountability for our military members is relatively easy because they are required to provide supervisors with contact information when they depart on leave even on there off time they are required to be accounted for.
Civilians are not required to provide contact information while in a non-duty status, and “The Privacy Act precludes us from making it a mandatory requirement. Provide emergency contact information to supervisors voluntarily. ” So, in the spirit of safety and wellness, and out of concern for each and every member of our great command. One who takes responsibility for those who works under his or her authority needs to have accountability at all times. When most people hear the word “accountability,” they immediately become uncomfortable.
The thought of making oneself totally open, honest, and vulnerable with another person doesn’t sound appealing to most of us. It’s easy for people to stay in their comfort zone and avoid confronting difficult issues and weaknesses in their lives. The key to creating a successful culture of change management is accountability. The entire organization needs to understand the need for being accountable. That will happen as subordinates start to see the benefits of having the process done correctly. There will be less unplanned outages and work. They will begin to move from the reactive mode of operation to being proactive.
When this happens, the subordinates will start to police their own ranks and eliminate subversive behavior before it ever happens. What is accountability and the definition: (DOD) The obligation imposed by law or lawful order or regulation on an officer or other person for keeping accurate record of property, documents, or funds. The person having this obligation may or may not have actual possession of the property, documents, or funds. Accountability is concerned primarily with records, while responsibility is concerned primarily with custody, care, and safekeeping.
Why is accountability important to the Army? Accountability is a very important part of an enlisted and a NCO’s job. The enlisted soldier is responsible for all items issued to issued to him weather it be a weapon, NVG’s, clothes, a vehicle. According to, Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. Accountability means the state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account; accountableness. It’s important to be accounted for no matter if you’re part of a formation or some type of business.
Being accounted for let’s that subjects accountee know that he/she is at his point of place and time. To be accounted for allows the subject to be somewhere else other than his point of duty, knowing that his command knows of his whereabouts and his status. One likes to believe that being on time is being late, but being early is being on time. The importance of being on time when getting accounted for shows how responsible you are instead of showing up late. The dictionary defines punctual as: Acting or arriving exactly at the time appointed; prompt.
Under the rigid and disciplined structure of military life there is no margin for error. The slightest modicum of hesitation or procrastination can result in the tragic loss of innumerable lives. There are many circumstances where a failure to be prompt could have dire consequences. Under certain circumstances not arriving for guard duty at the designated time could allow a breach of security that could ultimately end in the brutal murder of your peacefully slumbering, unsuspecting battle buddies at the zealous hands of our insurgent foes.
Choosing an example from a different segment of the spectrum of responsibility, we see how a noncommissioned officer’s failure to release his soldiers in a timely manner can affect the combat effectiveness of the entire unit. If this leader’s long windedness results in a soldier consistently being released to go on shift without enough time to eat,…… Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as answerability, enforcement, responsibility , blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving.
As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in both the public and private worlds. Accountability is very important because it allows for your chain of command to know where you are at the moment, It is also important because it tells the unit commanders also the none commissioned officers how around how many personnel are available to perform certain tasks, If a leader does not know around how many troops are available then he/she will not know who is available to do what, Everything must be accounted for, from food, rounds, troops, vehicles, fuel, and so on.
Discipline and accountability to your unit is a must, so they know where you are and that you are safe and the military is run off discipline without it we wouldn’t be the greatest military/army in the history of the world. Also the U. S. army values imply that soldiers are accountable for their actions. Being accountable means being dependable-arriving to work on time and appointments on time, meeting deadlines, being in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing at the right time.
Morning formation is the most important formation of the day. It is made to get accountability of everyone and put out any information that there needs to be dealt with. Without having accountability there is no knowing of where everybody is or what’s going on. Not only does accountability matter in formation it is also imperative to have accountability of all your weapons and sensitive items. Accountability means the state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account; accountableness.
It’s important to be accounted for no matter if you’re part of a formation or some type of business. Being accounted for let’s that subjects accountee know that he/she is at his point of place and time. To be accounted for allows the subject to be somewhere else other than his point of duty, knowing that his command knows of his whereabouts and his status. One likes to believe that being on time is being late, but being early is being on time.
The importance of being on time when getting accounted for shows how responsible you are instead of showing up late an getting in trouble. Punc-tu-al, adj. 1. Acting or arriving exactly at the time appointed; prompt. 2. Paid or ac-complished at or by the appointed time. 3. Precise; exact. As defined by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. In United States Army terms, it is basically described as being at one’s appointed place of duty at any given time. All in all, the word punc- tual is one way to describe the concept of being on time.
This idea of being on time does not just apply to the Army, but life in general. As do many, if not all of our Army Values and Leadership Principles, which are instilled in us from the day we(Soldiers)set foot on those steps of basic training. And I can go back even farther than that. There’s our parents and teachers of course. As anybody who’s gone to school or holds a job knows, punctuality is strictly enforced. Even in our personal lives, there’s commitments and personal deadlines we have to meet.
But for the purposes of this article, we’ll concentrate on the importance of being on time as it pertains to the United States Army and in general, the armed forces of America. Punctuality falls in with the individual actions performed by Army, and is an essential part in military life as well as safety measures. Well, most of it has to do with the saying A Man’s Word is His Bond. If you tell someone you’re going to do something, then you do it. If you don’t, you’d better give notice ahead of time, and have a pretty good reason.
