PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

144 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Further online reading about the budgetary process in parliam ent:
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (2001). Parliamentary oversight of
finance and the budgetary process. The report of a Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association workshop, Nairobi, Kenya, 10th -14th December, 2001.
Inter-Parliamentary Union, United Nations Development Programme,
World Bank Institute and United Nations Fund for Women (2004).
Handbook: Parliament, the budget and gender.
National Democratic Institute (2003). Legislatures and the budget process.
An international survey.
Santiso, C (2005). Budget institutions and fiscal responsibility: parliaments and the
political economy of the budget process in latin america. World Bank Institute
Wehner, J (2004). Back from the sidelines? Redefining the contribution of legislatures
to the budget cycle. World Bank Institute
Monitoring government expenditure
The post hoc monitoring of government expenditure is carried out in most
parliaments by a Public Accounts Committee or equivalent body, typically
chaired by a member from a non-governing party so as to enhance its independence.
Effective monitoring encompasses issues such as the following:
■ Has public money been spent on the purposes for which it was assigned?
■ Has it been spent efficiently, and without waste?
■ Has spending been kept within the budget allocation?
■ Is there evidence of fraud or misappropriation, or other irregularities?
Some parliaments have recently shifted the focus of monitoring from a
detailed tracking of expenditure flows to an analysis of outcomes and achieve-