DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCEThe Model

Citizens entrust power to a President and his Team to govern the citizens.

The Government’s duty is to provide PUBLIC GOODS and SERVICES.

PUBLIC RESOURCES

Citizens provide Government with the means to provide the PUBLIC GOODS and SERVICES through:

Taxes including RoyaltiesGrantsLoansOthers (such as sale of Public Assets)

ACCOUNTABILITY1.The relationship creates need for

ACCOUNTABILITY for the President and his Government to account to the people who provided the RESOURCES to them to provide the PUBLIC GOODS and SERVICES.

2. The concept of Accountability is How Those Entrusted With Powers to Govern are held responsible for their actions.

DEFINITIONS“Public Accountability means ensuring that officials are answerable for their actions and that there is redress when duties and commitments are not met.”

“Public Accountability demands that politicians and public servants who are entrusted with public resources must be answerable for the fiscal and social responsibilities to the people who provided the resources and who assigned the responsibilities to them.”

ACCOUNTABILITY INSTITUTIONSTo provide accountability, there are three institutions:

A.Horizontal Institutions

Consists of formal relationships within the state itself whereby one state actor has the formal authority to demand explanations and impose penalty on another.

These are put in place and funded by the Government to ensure that MDA’s account for the resources allocated to them.

The Horizontal Institutions are:

1.Audit Service

2.Parliament

3.Judiciary

It is of significance that they are all NOT independent of Government.

B. Vertical Accountability Institutions

Are those in which citizens and their associations play direct roles in holding the powerful to account. Elections are the formal institutional channel of vertical accountability. But there are the CSOs and The Media.

1. The Citizens – Electorate

2. CSO

3. The Media

C. Diagonal Accountability Institution

Operates in-between the Vertical and Horizontal institutions. It is the phenomenon of direct citizens engagement with horizontal accountability institutions to provoke better oversight of state actions.

PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITYA Golden Concept. Key aspect of Good

Governance. Promotes good behavior on the part of public servants and enhances effective public service delivery.

Used in Political Discourse and Policy documents because it conveys images of Transparency and Trustworthiness.

Not restricted to Financial Accountability. There are other Non-Financial Accountability issues.

THE THREE ELEMENTS – Effectiveness of Accountability InstitutionsFor Accountability to happen, there are three basic elements:

Information- the right to receive information and the corresponding obligation to release information.

Answerability - the right to receive an explanation and the corresponding duty to justify one’s conduct.

Sanctions-the duty to punish improper behaviour and reward good behaviour.

ACCOUNTABILITY VRS CORRUPTION

Accountability works to remove graft, corruption and rent-seeking and ensure that scarce resources are used for their intended purposes.

THE KLITGAARD’S MODELAccording to Robert Klitgaard, corruption arises

where government institutions have MONOPOLY over delivery of certain public services.

It is made worse when issues relating to the delivery is not TRANSPARENT and there are no detailed or codified regulations governing the delivery. As a result, government officials have significant DISCRETIONARY powers.

THE KLITGAARD’S MODELThe combination of MONOPOLY and DISCRETION

empowers the public servant to exact bribes from clients who have no opportunity to resist demands for bribes.

Thus the model:

CORRUPTION = MONOPOLY + DISCRETION – ACCOUNTABILITY.

THE KLITGAARD’S MODEL - SolutionModel Implies three possible remedies:

1.Remove the MONOPOLY in service delivery.

2.Address the DISCRETION problem by developing and publishing regulations.

3.Create ACCOUNTABILITY pressures through Oversight.

WHAT THE STUDIES SAY1. THE MO-IBRAHIM INDEX 2013“Sub-Saharan Africa is a Region with low levels of

Accountability”

“Accountability is one of the weakest elements of African governance”

2. OTHERS

“Unaccountable and corruptive behaviour of political and bureaucratic elites, a weak judiciary as well as lack of independence from Government have been identified as the main reason for weak Accountability in Sub –Saharan Africa.

THE SPECIFIC ROLE OF PARLIAMENT1. As parliamentarians in a Parliamentary Democracy,

You are essentially promoters of accountable, Democratic Governance.

Your two broad functions are:LegislativeOversight

OVERSIGHTOversight is a means for holding the Executive

Accountable for its actions and ensuring policies are implemented in accordance with laws and the Annual Budget.

Besides the Legislative function, it is through Oversight that the Parliament ensures a Balance of Power and asserts its role as defender of the interest of the people.

Parliament passes the laws and approves policies for Executive to implement and for Parliament to oversight.

OBJECTIVES OF PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHTEnsure transparency and openness of Executive

Activities.

Platform to Debate, Scrutinize and subject Government Policies and Activities to public opinion.

Hold the Executive branch accountable.

Provide Financial Accountability to improve the Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness of Government expenditure.

Uphold the Rule of Law.

Protect the rights of citizens by monitoring policies and examining abuses of power, arbitrary behavior and illegal or unconstitutional conduct of Government.

TOOLS AND MECHANISMS OF PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT.

Vote of no Confidence or Censure Motions.A Minister of State may make a Statement of

Government Policy. Parliamentary Questions.Statements by Members.MotionsConfirmation of Executive Appointees.

TOOLS AND MECHANISMS FOR FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT.

This is best achieved by policing the Public Financial Management System (PSFM). Ghana adopts the Westminster system of PSFM which defines PSFM as:

The system by which financial Management resources are planned, directed and controlled to enable and influence the efficient and effective delivery of public service goals.

TOOLS AND MECHANISMS FOR FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT.Its cycle flows from the:Planning, Preparation and Approval of the

Budget based on agreed government policy priorities.

Through Execution of that Budget.

And the implementation of its implied policy objectives.

TOOLS AND MECHANISMS FOR FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT.

And then to the independent audit and scrutiny of that expenditure and performance.

The Legislative adjudication of probity and efficiency.

TOOLS AND MECHANISMS FOR FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT.And finally the feedback of lessons –learning

for improved financial control and more efficient public sector performance.

These processes translate into what has become known as the 4 phases of budget cycle.

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITYThe concern for Financial Accountability has

been of paramount importance from time immemorial.

KAUTILYA, a famous Indian Statesman and Philosopher who is largely acclaimed as author of the first manual on Bureaucracy so many years ago commented on it.

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY“Human nature is disposed to acquire public money

for private gain. Just as it is impossible to taste honey or poison that one may find at the tip of ones tongue, so it is impossible for one dealing with government funds not to taste at least a little bit of the king’s wealth”.

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY“Again just as it is impossible to know when a

fish moving in water is drinking it, so it is impossible to find out when government servants in charge of undertakings misappropriate money”.

In recognition this human proclivity he is reported to have formulated series of checks and balances in the administrative system.

PUBLIC FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITYPublic Financial Accountability under the

Westminster system is a TRIANGULAR arrangement involving the Executive Arm of Government, Parliament and the S.A.I.

The PSFM system is a mixture of Accounting, Financial and Management systems. Like all systems they are only as good as the in-built Checks and Balances.

PUBLIC FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITYAccountants refer to these Checks and Balances as

Internal Checks and Internal Controls.

The 4 Phases are;The Preparation Phase.The Approval Phase.The Implementation Phase.The Audit / Assurance Phase.

PUBLIC FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITYUnder the Westminster system, Accountability is

exercised in the various Phases.

The key issue about these phases is that they contain crucial Checks and Balances which go to determine the effectiveness of the overall PSFM.

These Checks and Balances or Better Still The inbuilt internal checks and controls have come to be referred to as Accountability Mechanisms.

SPECIFIC ROLE OF PARLIAMENT IN THE FOUR PHASES

In Phase 1, the Preparation Phase – No role for Parliament.

In Phase 2, the Approval Phase – the whole of Parliament.

In Phase 3, the Implementation Phase - the Sector Committees of Parliament.

In Phase 4, the Audit/Assurance Phase- the Public Accounts Committee for approval by Whole Parliament.

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