Public Accounts Committees in Eastern Africa: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Properly functioning Public Accounts Committees (PACs) are essential for promoting good governance, preventing misallocation of resources and curbing corruption. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the organization, powers and the performance of East Africa's PACs so as to understand what they do, what makes them work well and what could make them work better. 2 The analysis reveals that the Tanzania's PAC is the most active in the region because while it has fewer resources at its disposal than its Eastern African counterparts, it makes a more efficient use of the available resources as indicated by the fact that the Tanzanian Pac was able to carry out more oversight activities than the other PACs operating in the region in spite of having fewer resources. This evidence sustains the claim that legislators' political will is the single most important determinant of effective oversight. On the basis of the evidence presented in the paper, we formulate two policy recommendations: that in order to secure a more effective PAC performance, international organizations should pay greater attention to ensuring that legislators have the will to be effective overseers and that the Tanzania's PAC needs to be more adequately staffed and resourced.

Can parliamentary sanctions strengthen local political accountability? Evidence from Kenya

“…By focusing on the deliberations of an influential legislative committee in Kenya, the results demonstrate that formal institutional rules related to the selection of committee members matter for local accountability outcomes. This finding adds to a literature documenting how the lack of separation of powers within the political sphere hinders good governance (Golooba-Mutebi 2016;Pelizzo and Kinyondo 2014).…”

“…The chapter contributes to a small but growing body of literature on legislative accountability in Africa (Opalo 2019;Osei 2020;Pelizzo and Kinyondo 2014;Pelizzo and Stapenhurst 2008). Unlike most studies assessing how local factors (such as elections and grassroots organisations) can improve accountability outcomes, the argument here focuses on the interaction between the central government (parliaments) and subnational governments.…”

“…Existing studies point to the academic and policy debate on the ideal organisational structure of institutions of accountability in the central government, especially parliamentary committees (Pelizzo and Kinyondo 2014). The motivation behind the selection and composition of committee members is considered a critical element that can determine how parliaments can effectively achieve meaningful checks and balances between different levels of government.…”