Description

The term ‘accountability’ means holding public officials responsible for their activities and ‘financial accountability’ is concerned with the management of public money. The government establishes a legal framework for financial management. The government is accountable to the people through parliament for raising and using public funds. The concept of financial accountability is as old as parliament. Since the thirteenth century, the raising and use of public funds has been subject to the parliament. In modern times, one of the important functions of parliament is to hold the government accountable for it’s spending of public money. Parliamentary scholars argue that the parliament could and should do more to secure full financial accountability from government. All over the world parliaments have a unique constitutional role in authorizing and scrutinizing government finance (Brazier & Ram, 2006).
Parliament should keep an eye on the government expenditure through a mechanism of committees. The parliament through its standing committees looks for instances of misuse of public money and prescribes the necessary remedies. The committees are the most significant internal organizational features of a modern parliament that has the potential to oversee the public expenditure. Therefore, in much of the parliamentary studies, committees have tended to be shown as “miniature legislatures” or “microcosms” of their parent bodies that can ensure government accountability (Kaare, 1998). The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is one of the most important standing committees that are traditionally used by parliament for scrutinizing public expenditure.