AID AND PARLIAMENTARY ACCOUNTABILITY A MISSING LINK

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AID AND PARLIAMENTARY ACCOUNTABILITY A MISSING
LINK?

• Rasheed Draman
• Director, Africa Programs
• Parliamentary Centre

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Structure of Paper

• Key Messages
• History
• Ownership
• Paris Declaration and Parliaments
• Why Parliaments are sidelined, inactive
• Budget Support and the critical role of
  Parliament
• Mechanisms to Strengthen Parliaments
  Accountability Role

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Parliament, Accountability and Aid

• Key Messages
• Parliament is key in the accountability chain
• Its role is central to ensuring accountability
  both to donors and citizens
• Yet, Parliament is constantly ignored, by-passed
  and sidelined skewed balance of power
• Sometimes, Parliament is its own enemy
• Sometimes, it is a victim of deliberate executive
  manipulation/donor neglect
• But we believe in Parliament

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History

• Bank and Fund engage with Executive Institutions
  because they are membership organizations
• They train a cadre of individuals in Finance
  Ministries and Central Banks for interface in all
  negotiations of project and program elements and
  grants
• Parliaments lack the cadre of individuals who are
  knowledgeable in the operational guidelines and
  assumptions underlying the models employed by the
  2 institutions

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History ctd.

• Accountability to donors is a result of the
  existence of functional systems in the donor
  communities that require feedback on
  project/program implementation and data
  generation. Such systems do not exist in
  developing countries
• Thus, the lack of accountability, particularly to
  Parliament and ultimately to citizens may be
  ascribed to the absence of national systems

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History ctd.

• Data collection and management institutions lack
  the capacity to collect, collate and produce data
  for review, analysis and feedback on
  project/program implementation
• Weak Monitoring and Evaluation capacity in the
  public sector also meant there is little feedback
  into national strategies even if strategies exist

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Ownership

• Principles underlying the concept of ownership
  are good. But concept continues to be a mere
  slogan
• There is mutual understanding between donors
  and Executive institutions in developing
  countries to deliberately circumvent the
  principles of ownership
• In the process, a conscious attempt is made to
  ignore and sideline Parliaments
• Evidence from extensive studies conducted in
  several countries

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Paris Declaration and Parliaments

• Well-intentioned but ambitious plan to reform aid
  delivery
• But actions of donor countries and signatories
  ran counter to this ambitious plan
• And as usual, Parliamentarians across the board
  have been left out of the discussions
• Developing country Parliaments have very minimal
  knowledge of the principles (Parliamentary Centre
  and ODI Study)

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PD and Parliaments ctd.

• A 2006 Monitoring survey carried out by the
  OECD-DAC clearly recognized the importance of
  Parliaments
• Yet, thus far, Parliaments have not been
  systematically engaged, both in the North and
  South
• So, given the lack of knowledge of, and capacity
  to analyze and understand the principles, this
  ambitious agenda means little to Parliaments

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PD and Parliaments ctd.

• But a coalition of Parliamentary institutions
  (AWEPA, PC and PGA) planning a pre-Accra summit
  for Parliamentarians to collect input and
  recommendations for the HLF

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Parliaments and the Accountability Chain Weak?
Inactive?

• As a bridge between citizens and state,
  Parliaments are a key player in the
  accountability chain they are mandated and
  constitutionally positioned to demand and ensure
  accountability on behalf of citizens
• Yet, this role continues to elude Parliaments,
  first because of lack of capacity, a working
  institution and human and financial resources to
  support the work of Parliamentarians

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Parliaments and the Accountability Chain Weak?
Inactive?

• The weakest link in accountability to Parliament
  is the absence of research and independent
  scrutiny units
• These units can perform such duties as the review
  and analysis of the medium to long-term
  perspectives of bills and grant agreements being
  put before Parliament. Their information
  requirement will coerce MDAs to be more
  accountable to Parliament and Citizens

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Parliaments and the Accountability Chain ctd.

• But Parliaments weakness and inactivity in the
  realm of accountability is sometimes the fault of
  Parliament itself. Partisan politics takes
  precedence over very important issues that affect
  the lives of ordinary citizens
• And sometimes, Parliaments fail to seize
  opportunities and muster the necessary political
  will to bring about change

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Budget Support and the Critical Role of Parliament

• Direct Budget Support has to come redefine the
  nature of aid
• It has also redefined the nature of
  accountability to both donors and receipient
  country citizens
• Donor resources now disappear into a pool of
  resources used to finance budgetary allocations
• With this disappearance also comes the
  forfeiture of measures to hold recipient
  governments accountable

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Budget Support ctd.

• There is little or no investment in institutional
  capacity to provide the enabling environment for
  the Budget Support
• And the most important actor that can ensure the
  judicious use of resources in this new aid
  relationship Parliament receives very little
  attention
• Other accountability institutions have also
  failed to attract the attention of donors

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Budget Support ctd.

• With little attention on Constraining and
  Accountability mechanisms, Budget Support is
  currently running into trouble
• Evidence not too good misallocation of resources
  with impunity rampant corruption budget not
  being followed

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Mechanisms to Strengthen Parliaments
Accountability Role?

• Parliamentary Centre in Africa
• Country-specific/bilateral programs
• Multi-country/pan Africa programs
• Post-conflict parliamentary development