The primary focus of the present government in the last three years among other things has been on issues and matters relating to accountability. The process of accountability and oversight of governmental functioning is conducted by various institutions in light of their respective mandates.
Oversight is not an end in itself but a means through which the executive is held accountable for its actions and decisions to ensure that policies of the parliament are implemented within the framework of laws and the budget passed by the legislature. Oversight is a function granted by the Constitution to Parliament to monitor and oversee government actions.
Parliamentary oversight and the accountability process is carried out through array of tools available in any country which include forums and institutions like hearings, the vote of confidence, interpellation, parliamentary questions, committees of inquiry, budgetary oversight by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the budget and finance committees, supreme audit institutions (the Auditor General) facilitating ex-post budget oversight by playing a “watchdog” role and reporting its findings to parliament, the ombudsman and the special standing committees of parliament. The parliament is responsible for ensuring that public funds are spent legally, wisely and prudently in the public interest and are not squandered, misused or wasted.
In the Westminster model of democracy like in Pakistan, the Parliament for scrutiny of public expenditure relies on an expert that is on independent services of the Auditor-General of Pakistan. This means that the Department of Auditor General (DAGP) also helps parliament to oversee the executive. PAC is one of the most important parliamentary committees, which is responsible to carry out the function of financial accountability of the government sector while scrutinising and discussing the feedback given in the AGP’s audit reports on the utilisation and management of public money. In the context of parliamentary oversight in Pakistan, it is important to understand the functional relationship between the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) as both of these institutions play a pivotal role in carrying out oversight and financial accountability functions.
The AGP submits his reports to the Parliament or Provincial Assemblies through the President and the Governors of the provinces. Once the audit reports are laid in the parliament (as per Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in The National Assembly 2007), they are sent to the Public Accounts Committee (Standing Committee of Public Accounts) for scrutiny and discussion. PAC is represented both by the members of the National Assembly and Senate and it is headed by the Leader of Opposition. The meetings of PAC are participated by its members, AGP and the Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs) of the ministries and divisions. After discussing the audit reports the PAC decides the cases in light of rules, regulations and prudence. As a result of discussions while deciding the fate of audit observations PAC may take actions like ordering recoveries from defaulting officials, initiation of departmental inquiries to fix responsibility, settling the audit observations on the basis of evidence, referring the cases of glaring financial irregularities to investigative agencies for criminal proceedings etc.
It is important that the political parties in parliament should nominate such members for the PAC who have capacity, knowledge and knack for addressing the governance and accountability issues as their inputs in deliberations of the Committee would add value to the oversight and accountability functions. One way of making PAC effective is to change the nature of PAC directives from recommendatory to mandatory and for this necessary amendment may be made in rules and procedures of the National Assembly. A robust and efficient follow up system needs to be established by developing the capacity of PAC Secretariat. Holding the DAC meeting on a regular basis would allow the audit management and PAOs to discuss and dispose of the issues/observations of minor procedural nature resulting in providing PAC an opportunity to focus on significant and strategic issues. Apart from this DAGP should also contribute in this matter while reporting matters of strategic nature and significant issues in its audit reports through conducting thematic and issue-based audits. A better coordination and interaction between PAC and DAGP would add value to the conducting business of the PAC meetings effectively. Both PAC and DAGP may continue to complement each other’s efforts in carrying out oversight and accountability functions on a regular basis while providing an assurance to the public that taxpayers money and public resources are used legally, with financial prudence and on activities for which they were provided. An effective monitoring of the executive by the parliament is an indicator of good governance. In addition to parliament’s legislative function, oversight is a tool through which the parliament ensures a balance of power and asserts its role as the protector of people’s interests.