Accountability and Transparency through E-Governance: A Review

This study challenges the existing knowledge that, traditionally, accountability was perceived as a retrospective mechanism focused on compliance and sanction after governance failures occur. As such, e-governance emerged as a transformative mechanism for improving accountability and transparency in public administration. This study majorly reviews literature from 2010 – 2025 using PRISMA methodology across Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. Findings reveal that digital governance enhances transparency through open data and real-time disclosure while strengthening accountability via auditability and traceability. However, institutional weaknesses and digital divides remain key barriers. The study, at first, proposes a Digital Accountability-Transparency (DAT) model, as well advancing a new paradigm in development studies. Second, we argue that accountability in digital governance is a proactive, continuous and data-driven process embedded within real-time transparency systems.  This perspective shifts the paradigm from reactive accountability to proactive accountability; static transparency to interactive transparency and finally, hierarchical governance to networked digital governance. Policymakers should draw lessons from this change.