Accountability-based accounting in the blame game for post-disaster aid

The paper compares two accountability systems concerning the aid provided after the Marsica earthquake occurred in Italy in 1915. The two account givers, the Government and a private Committee, face a hostile and favourable accountability environment respectively, because the media and public opinion severely criticized the response by the public authorities and praised the private initiative. The accounting systems adopted to operationalize the accountability systems are read in the light of the different dispositions of the accountability forums. While the Committee displays the full range of accounting practices available, discursive, calculative, and visual, the Government mainly relies on discursive practices and only exhibits a selection of calculative practices directing the audience towards specific blame-avoidance evaluation standards. By providing an example of an ‘attacking’ and defensive use of accounting, the study contributes to our understanding of the nexus between accounting, accountability, and blame avoidance in a post-natural disaster scenario.