Is it necessary to transfer 51% responsibility for the task or activity to our project team?

Stephane and Satish - you have lead charmed lives. ;)

On a macro level, I've witnessed (and participated in) many business transformation initiatives where changes in authority were shifted from one executive to another. The process by which the transfers occurred was delegation by senior staff.

On a micro level, I've seen individuals totally abrogate their responsibility and accountability to their teams under the guise of 'empowerment'. In some organizational cultures, if something goes 'wrong', the individual who empowered their team would NOT be held responsible because they faithfully carried out the corporate empowerment mandate.

One final point that bears mentioning is that not all delegation involves authority. Delegating of analysis or design tasks, for instance, do not necessarily come with increased authority; they do however come with responsibility.