This paper explores the relationship between accountability and local government performance within the context of Indonesia's public governance framework. Accountability, a key principle of good governance, is crucial for enhancing the efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness of local governments. Despite reforms aimed at strengthening governance structures, many local governments in Indonesia, particularly in developing regions, continue to face challenges in meeting performance expectations. We use 167 data from local government in Riau Province, Indonesia to examines how vertical and horizontal accountability, management commitment, and local autonomy influence government performance. We analyze the data with Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). Our study found that vertical accountability and horizontal accountability as the factor of institutional environment have a positive relationship with the local government performance. In addition, our analysis also found that local autonomy moderates the relationship between accountability (vertical and horizontal) on the local government performance. The influence of horizontal accountability on the local government performance becomes stronger when there is local autonomy. However, the moderating role of local autonomy on the relationship between vertical accountability and of local government performance have a negative path coefficient. Finally, this research also reveals that management commitment moderate the relationship between accountability (vertical and horizontal) and local government performance. This study contributes to the literature on public governance by highlighting the critical role of accountability in improving local government performance, offering both theoretical insights and practical recommendations for enhancing governance in developing countries like Indonesia.