This article provides the first and most comprehensive analysis of Public Accounts Committees (PACs) from Eastern and Southern Africa. By analysing an original set of data, this article shows that PACs in these two regions are bigger, have more staff members, and are more likely to be chaired by opposition Members of Parliament than they have in other countries and regions. Furthermore, the data show that Eastern and Southern African PACs are more active than their counterparts elsewhere. However, lack of political will and limits to the range of powers that they enjoy as well as the dearth of quality technical support from parliamentary staff significantly undermines the effectiveness of these committees and their ability to play a greater role in curbing corruption.
The survey data included in this article were collected from the survey questionnaire administered to PAC chairs and clerks of eleven Eastern and Southern African Parliaments.
Key findings:
- Comparative analysis reveals that PACs from Eastern and Southern Africa are bigger, better staffed in terms of quantity, and more likely to be chaired by an opposition MP than PACs in the rest of the world. In terms of power, Eastern and Southern African PACs have slightly lower right of access and accounts and operations power, but have greater powers pertaining to the relationship with the AG. Furthermore, they greatly outperform the PACs from the rest of the world in terms of meetings held, hearings held, and reports produced. However, the evidence has shown that the quantity of parliamentary staff and activities such as meetings and hearings do not adequately reflect the effectiveness and efficiency of PACs.
- Despite this, while the overall regional outlook is fairly promising, there are areas in which individual countries are lagging behind the rest of the region and the rest of the world. From an organizational point of view, the percentages of opposition MPs serving on the PAC in Seychelles and South Sudan are respectively less than half and less than a third of what they are in the region.
- Given the importance of opposition MPs on the PAC, it would be beneficial if the number of opposition MPs serving on these two PACs were larger. Furthermore, extending the term of appointment in Seychelles may help increase the independence and possibly the successfulness of the PAC.
- In spite of the fact that PACs from the British Isles enjoy the support of a fairly small staff, they have been remarkably successful in implying that quality staff support plays a crucial role in ensuring PAC’s success. Hence it would be beneficial if the PACs operating in Lesotho and Swaziland and, to a lesser extent in Seychelles and Tanzania, were given some more quality staff support.
- In addition, most of the PACs in the region have a fairly wide set of powers. The only two countries that could possibly benefit from having a broader mandate are Seychelles and Uganda. The PAC in Seychelles is significantly below the regional average in terms of accounts and operations powers, while Uganda — because of the division of labor across the various committees — has a fairly narrow set of powers in terms of right of access. This weakness is coupled with the fact that the PAC from Uganda has access to very few witnesses. Ironically, the case of Tanzania has shown that broad powers vested in PACs should be continuously put under scrutiny to prevent them from fuelling corruption.
- In sum, some PACs need more quality staff, some need to have greater opposition representation, some need a broader mandate, others need to be more active, and yet some like the PAC in Tanzania need to be scrutinized more to prevent them from covering up corruption. On the other hand, there is an urgent need for follow-ups to reports produced by PACs in the region.
- All in all, what is clear from this research is that these needs are, for the most part, independent from one another and are country specific, and this is a lesson that reform-oriented politicians, institutional reformers, practitioners, and international organizations should keep in mind in their effort to make Eastern and Southern African PACs more effective and efficient.