Editorial
Public accounts lacking oversight
An ad hoc body on the anvil at last
There has not been a public accounts oversight body since the expiry of the eighth parliament's tenure on October 27 last year. As a natural consequence, the public accounts committee (PAC) of the parliament had then ceased to exist. So, there has been a void in an important area having to do with good governance based on financial discipline.
The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the World Bank suggesting as early as in June and July that the government form an ad hoc PAC, the process is now afoot to constitute one. Though belated, the move is welcome because of the obvious need to oversee public accounts during the tenure of any government, let alone gaps in accounts-keeping and auditing of the previous governments' financial conduct.
Now the question is: how representative and appropriate the ad hoc public accounts committee is going to be? The committee is likely to be composed of eminent citizens including retired judges, former government officials, corporate sector leaders and academics. The public and private sector should be equally represented. The members should be men or women of unimpeachable neutrality, probity and competence.
The functions of the committee, among others, would be to ensure that wastage, corruption and inefficiency in the conduct of financial matter are scrupulously avoided, suggest measures to recover public money illegally held by individuals and hear out and dispose of audit objections. One of the prime concerns of the committee would be to attend to unresolved pension cases of numerous retired government officials.
It is imperative for the purposes of the ad hoc committee that it has the authority of public accounts committee of the parliament, so that the executive branch of the government pays heed to the recommendations of the committee and act accordingly.
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