Financial Scrutiny

CPA programmes have ensured that scrutiny of public spending is now recognized as playing a crucial and very practical role in the fight against poverty.  It is now acknowledged by Members, governments, international aid donors and global financial agencies that better parliamentary oversight leads to better policy formulation and programme delivery if Parliaments are fully empowered to determine if resources are actually reaching the intended beneficiaries of government policies.

The CPA has focused parliamentary and international attention on the vital role of Public Accounts Committees (PACs) in strengthening Parliament’s scrutiny function.  A 2001 CPA Study Group on PACs and subsequent meetings and conferences, including a workshop for MPs in Ghana in August 2003, put the CPA at the forefront of those supporting PACs.  Much of this work has been in co-operation with the World Bank Institute, and the Study Group report is now used as a key training resource by the Institute and its parent body, the World Bank, in restructuring governmental financial processes around the world. 

Further studies and information exchanges on a regional basis have been organized for Members of PACs or other relevant committees in Commonwealth Africa, Asia and the Caribbean in 2003 and 2004, in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank Institute.  In discussions with experts in the field, Members learned more about the scrutiny techniques:

• The presentation of the budget and its process through Parliament,
• The role and status of poverty reduction policies and their impact on the budgetary process,
• The processes of oversight and their implications for the budgetary cycle,
• The operations of different PACs and parliamentary committees that oversee public enterprises and undertakings and
• The potential for regional networking and co-operation in the further development of PACs.

In 2006, PAC Members from Bangladesh, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Solomon Islands and Sri Lanka, as well as Auditors-General and the Clerks responsible for supporting PACs attended a CPA-supported workshop at Australia’s La Trobe University.  Their discussions covered various issues of importance for increasing efficiency in oversight and financial scrutiny. These include adequate resourcing for oversight institutions, collaboration with departmental parliamentary committees, the relationship between the PAC and the Auditor-General, and opening committee meetings to the public and media.

The CPA has further broadened the scope of this work to include the financial scrutiny role of all parliamentary committees with oversight of government departments.  The CPA and World Bank Institute are developing a programme to ensure that all parliamentary committees are equipped to deliver effective financial oversight of the executive. A new reference book on Parliament and the budget process is also being prepared for publication in 2007 so all Parliamentarians will have access to the latest thinking in this field.