Improving Transparency and Accountability throughout the Parliamentary Fiscal Cycle

11/08/17 • 27 min

What challenges do parliamentarians face in executing their fiscal scrutiny functions, including the review, approval or rejection of their government’s national revenues and expenditure plans? How does information asymmetry between the Executive and the legislative branch influence their ability to effectively fulfill this responsibility? What institutions or practices can be adopted to facilitate this?

One of parliament’s fundamental roles is their fiscal scrutiny functions which include the review, approval or rejection, of a government’s national revenues and expenditure plans (including its expenditure estimates, budget and taxation proposals, and public accounts). Parliaments often face challenges in effectively fulfilling this role due to lack of technical capacity, political intervention and inefficient systems. The information asymmetry that exists between executive and legislative branches creates an important gap, along with the tendency to focus debates on new programs rather than sustainability and the reluctance to change.

To address these challenges governments and parliaments can start to re-think transparency by focusing on the publication of relevant information in a format that can easily be understood rather than overwhelming parliaments and the public with unnecessary data. It can consider developing new institutions such as Independent Fiscal Institutions (IFIs), also known as Parliamentary Budget Offices (PBOs), to support parliament with independent fiscal analysis. Finally, it can examine the entire financial process to understand where the core issues lie to fix a dysfunctional system.

This intervention was recorded during the workshop on Strengthening Accountability through Fiscal Transparency Practices that took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on September 6, 2017. This workshop, which was partly facilitated by Mr. Page, explored transparency and accountability practices within the parliamentary financial cycle to analyze challenges and identify opportunities for improvement, with particular attention to the role of parliamentary budget offices and fostering public participation in fiscal policy.

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Rebuilding Citizen Trust: Parliaments at the Cutting Edge of the Transparency Agenda

Why is the transparency agenda critical to rebuilding citizens’ trust in our governance institutions? How have international movements been working to promote a new form of relationship between citizens and their governments? And how do Parliaments fit into this agenda?

Citizen trust in democratic institutions, including parliaments, is critical to the functioning of democracy and effectiveness of governance. As the institution that represents citizens and translates their interests to legislation, parliaments are particularly affected by declining trust and blurred perceptions about their core functions. As the institution that is closest to citizens, it is therefore not surprising that parliaments are emerging at the center of international platforms and national efforts to retain and restore public confidence in democratic institutions by, for example, adopting measures to provide information on their day-to-day activities in more accessible and transparent ways.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an example of a multilateral initiative that aims to restore public confidence by securing concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, fight corruption, empower citizens, and harness new technologies to strengthen democratic governance. The OGP currently has 75 participating countries including Canada, which have collectively made over 2,500 related commitments.

The transparency agenda – and its pursuit through platforms like the OGP – are not exclusive to the executive branch of government. Parliaments in many countries – particularly those in the Americas – have been driving this agenda by working with citizens to develop their own internal action plans, and by functioning as models for transparency in their country. Increasing numbers of parliaments are also developing standalone chapters as part of their country’s OGP commitments.

Through leadership roles in the OGP Legislative Openness Working Group and the ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network (OPN) Senator Hernán Larraín has been instrumental in positioning parliaments at the centre of this transparency agenda. In his address, he will consider progress achieved and upcoming opportunities, like the next Summit of the Americas about Democratic Governance against Corruption in April 2018 in Peru, to incorporate a parliamentary perspective and a focus on citizen trust in the shaping of the transparency agenda.

This intervention was recorded during the ParlAmericas Canadian Section Annual Parliament Hill reception where Senator Larraín was invited to be the Guest Speaker to discuss how a number of parliaments in the Americas and the Caribbean are leading by example within the Open Government Partnership to be at the cutting edge of the transparency agenda.

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Leyendo las noticias en la era de la post-verdad

Pablo Boczkowski, profesor del Departamento de Estudios de Comunicación de Northwestern University y codirector del Centro de Estudios de Medios y Sociedad en Argentina, ofreció la conferencia magistral Leyendo las noticias sobre Trump, que abordó el rol de los medios de comunicación y las redes sociales a la luz de fenómenos como las noticias falsas y la posverdad. Esta presentación fue grabada durante la catorceava Asamblea Plenaria de ParlAmericas: Acciones parlamentarias para promover el discurso político responsable, celebrada en Medellín, Colombia los días 16 y 17 de noviembre de 2017.