Public access to reliable information is necessary for government accountability. Such access is supported in each Australian jurisdiction by Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. A separate, but related issue, is the accountability of governments and agencies to the Parliament. In all circumstances, agencies remain responsible for ensuring that the government's objectives are delivered in a cost-effective manner. Agencies are not able to transfer accountability to a private sector entity, irrespective of the procurement method used.130 The essential characteristic of accountability is access to information - virtually all accountability relies on the availability of reliable and timely information. Indeed, it has been said that 'information is the lifeblood of accountability'.131
However, as a result of increased private sector involvement, through contractual arrangements, in activities traditionally undertaken by the public sector, it is arguable that the flow of information available to assess performance and satisfy accountability requirements has, on the whole, been reduced. This situation has arisen where performance data is held exclusively by the private sector or through claims of commercial confidentiality that seek to limit or exclude data in agency hands from wider public or parliamentary scrutiny. A statement of Principles for Commercial Confidentiality and the Public Interest put out by the Australasian Council of Auditors-General in 1997 found that:
Recent experiences in Australia would indicate that Government agencies are tending to use the pretext of commercial confidentiality as a shield against the disclosure of information which is commercially embarrassing to the Government or which raises issues of probity.132
Thus accountability can be impaired where the involvement of private sector parties in the delivery of public sector outcomes reduces openness and transparency in public administration. Most confidentiality claims regarding contracts are claims about the commercial sensitivity of the material. As PPPs are, essentially, long-term contractual arrangements, this issue is of considerable significance to the maintenance of accountability to the Parliament under such arrangements. In this respect, a Senate Committee has said:
Partnerships with government need to open, well documented and conducted with integrity - not only because the public has a right to know how public funds are spent, but because anything less may expose the Commonwealth to litigation, is costly and undermines public confidence.133