In presenting the analysis, the focus is mainly on the council of chiefs and how its fono (meeting) protocols enforce accountability for council members and transparency in decision-making. This is not to say that the fono is the only mechanism for accountability and transparency in local government in Samoa. There are in fact other mechanism but they are beyond the scope of this paper. Also, whilst references are made to the parliamentary model that applies to central government practices in Samoa, no attempt is made to present a comparison between the two models. Such a task requires further extensive research.