The Claim-to-Evidence Accountability Framework: A Lifecycle Method for Normalizing Runtime-Governance Claims, Declaring Evidence Expectations, Evaluating Bounded Assurance, and Managing Drift Across AI System States

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This paper is the canonical statement of the Claim-to-Evidence Accountability Framework. It defines the lifecycle governance method, accountability roles, claim-normalization approach, evidence-commitment model, bounded-assurance principles, change and drift model, and Auditor Reconciliation Protocol, and it carries the CSR, ECM, ARP workpaper, and lifecycle register templates in Appendices A through D. A companion implementation-oriented publication, From Procurement Claim to Audit Evidence: Technical Companion to the Claim-to-Evidence Accountability Framework (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22773389), provides more detailed guidance on correlated evidence objects, runtime receipt profiles, provenance, custody, integrity, coverage disclosures, and review workpapers. The companion does not supersede this framework. Rights Copyright © 2026 Narnaiezzsshaa Truong. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). You may copy, redistribute, adapt, transform, and build upon this work for any purpose, including commercial purposes, provided that you give appropriate attribution, link to the license, indicate whether changes were made, and distribute any shared adaptation under CC BY-SA 4.0 or a compatible license. No use may imply the author's endorsement, validation, certification, or affiliation.