The increasing importance of parliaments in fiscal management and determinants of relevant oversight Mechanisms By Phyllis Makau Director Parliamentary Budget Office of Kenya May 2013

Introduction There are three roles that legislators play (a) the reprentative reole; my member of parliament, my senator, my representative, my congress man/ woman (b) the legislative role: they make laws to regulate society: one important law they make is the budget law that regulates the resources of the country for the sole aim of serving the country. (c) the oversight role: the emerging role of parliament?

Types of legislatures: From an International perspective Simple legislature: less powerful:- and rubber stamps:- Arena type of legislature: evaluates policies and budgets and there is real debate but cannot shape policies and budgets. Transformative: They shape dramatically policies and budgets. They make budgets The Emerging legislatures: They are in the process to becoming transformative :

Oversight tools a) the legal framework: the constitution and other pieces of legislation. Do they give parliament the necessary powers?. the supreme law is the constitution but often the constitution is too broad and inadequate hence the need for a budget law. The powers can be restricted or open ended that enable the legislature to amend any policy or budget either with some limitations or without. The legal framework also ensures there is clear responsibilities of different institution in particular between the executive and the legislature

(B)The committee system Bulk of work for most parliaments takes place at the committee level before final debate at the plenary. Committee can inquire, investigate and hold public hearing in most issue Critical to this is the type of committees: traditional committees are the departmental committees or the standing committees The public accounts committee The budget committee often set up through a legislation to give it the necessary powers.

(B) Public hearing The era is that of inclusiveness Consult widely and maintain an open door policy This allows the public to access parliament and bring out key issues on various policies that the executive may not have considered in the development of the policy or budget. Allows for investigation and inquiry of some key issues and also achieves ownership of the policies

(C)Parliamentary budget offices They are independent specialized units within parliament They provide non partisan advice to members on economic and budgetary matters They analyse budget proposals by the executive and provide assistance to members of the legislature They conduct economic research so necessary to committees They provide the technical bridge between the parliament and the executive the treasury

What works Ability to work through the political minefield; it is not office for the opposition, minority party or the ruling party. Their analysisr must be authentic Must be able to access the right information, an enabling legal framework Must be visible; it will not work if it is tucked deep inside the mainstream parliamentary secretariat It is bet when it is established through legilation It must network with think tanks, the executive and the civil society

Challenges to PBO Resistance both internal as well as externally: often budget offices are established within a fully fledged secretariat of parliament and may cause internal resistance as the staff start becoming more involved in the working of committees in particular Political minefield; the budget in particular is a political minefield as the budget is for the executive and any opinion that leads to changes can cause some differences. High turnovers of the members of parliament. In some countries the politicl turnover is high and thisleads to having to have a continuous program of training Resources both human and financially. Resources are scarce and so are they scarce to the parliamentary budget office

Conclusion The legislature of today has a better opportunity to ensure that services are delivered to the people they represent through Ensuring there is a ex ante checks and balances to the executive through analysis of policies including the budget before they approve it Ensuring there is continueing oversight ensure that current issues are part of the debate in the house and early remedial measures are taken Ensuring post ante promotes accountability and it is linked to the budget.

Thank you ASANTE SANA and Wish you the best Parliamentary Budget Office