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Public Accounts Committee in Financial Oversight: an Evaluation of Its Performance with Special Reference to Bangladesh Jatia Sangsad

A. B. Khan
Associate Professor
Department of Economics and Sociology, Patuakhali Science and Technology University Dumki, Patuakhali, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Committee System is the indispensable part of modern legislature as it is seen in all types of Parliament irrespective of the forms of government –Parliamentary or Presidential, old or new, large or small. A powerful legislature needs a well-developed committee structure for its smooth functioning especially in oversight activities. Democracy does not depend exclusively on the ability of government to perform well but also on the fact that the government action is subject to proper scrutiny and control. Parliamentary oversight function is important in enforcing improved financial accountability, combating fraud and corruption and promoting good governance in the public sector. Most democratic parliaments appoint a specialist committee for this function-the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and similar committees. This paper intended to discuss the role of PAC in financial oversight with special reference to Bangladesh Jatia Sangsad.

Keywords: Democracy, Financial oversight, Parliament, Public accounts committee.

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Program Area: Knowledge Management

Non-commodity: Performance

Objectives:

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is one of the most important standing committee that keeps an important role to ensure government financial accountability by scrutinizing public expenditure.

Methodology:

The parliaments which have been developed following the Westminster model incorporated common tools and mechanisms to ensure government’s accountability for its action. These mechanisms can be categorized into the following manner like ‘individual’ and ‘collective’. The individual method includes a number of techniques such as question, adjournment motion, take part in discussion and voting on the annual budget. on the other hand committee system is the best examples of collective method. There are two parliamentary committees in the collective method which have greater influences on financial control are Committee on Public Estimates (PEC) and Public Accounts Committee (PAC). PEC is concerned with conducting ex ante scrutiny of estimates while the PAC is concerned with ex post scrutiny. Considering the varieties of regimes over the last 42 year of Bangladesh, it may be categorized into three broad phases: 1. Early Phase of Democracy (1972-1975), 2. Military Governments (1975-1990), and 3. Restoration of Democracy and Subsequent Democratic Regimes (1990-till).

Source of Information: J. Patuakhali Sci. and Tech. Univ. 2014, 5(1):55-69

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Achievement/Findings:

The PAC in Bangladesh started its journey with a vision to ensure financial accountability according to the spirit of true democracy. But, after four decades of its inception, it seems that PAC remains deficient in many aspects, albeit it has some success in regards of its oversight function. The PACs in various parliaments do not appear to be good watchdog especially in two aspect; the audit reports submitted by C & AG was not resolved in due time and the recommendation was not implemented effectively. However, the PAC seems to be more active in democratic regimes than military regimes in terms of its performance. After restoration of democracy by the 5^th parliamentary election in 1991, the scope and scale of PAC activities increased considerably and till working having lots of cultural lacking and structural defects. Democracy is more of a system; it’s a code of life, art of compromise and consensus which reconstruct a mature political culture. In another way, it can also be said that a mature political culture reconstruct mature democracy. In Bangladesh, a mature political culture is not adopted yet for smooth functioning of democracy and its various organs.

Knowledge Management: Journal