Parliamentary Committees in Democracies: Unit 7 Transparency, Participation & Outreach

Learning Objectives Outline and explain issues of transparency in parliament; Discuss transparency and outreach and how they feed into the parliamentary process; Outline the types and nature of outreach methods available to parliamentarians.

Parliamentary Transparency Is embodied in the oversight function of parliaments; Calls for accountability and transparency; Aims to ensure that parliamentary democracy is open, and governed by the rule of law; Invokes the need to reach out to constituents.

Requirements for Parliamentary Transparency Giving all representatives access to parliamentary processes; Making public accounts verifiable; Allowing public participation in policy-making; Allowing contestation over choices impacting citizens; Making available accurate and timely information on results of policy for public scrutiny.

Parliamentary Transparency Revolves around: Information management and communication; The relationship between transparency and accountability; decision-making; whistle blowing; and ethics; Strengthened relations between civil society and constituents; Development of parliamentary networks; and Assets declaration.

Relationship Between Transparency & Accountability Accountability weaknesses factors in shortcomings in public management, eg. inability to mobilize resources; Transparency requires: verifiable public accounts, public participation in policy-making Public participation in implementation Together accountability and transparency are essential for: the use of public resources; promoting public welfare, enhancing governmental responsiveness.

Transparency of Committees Keep all records of committee proceedings; Make summaries of committee proceedings available to the public; Make verbatim transcripts of proceedings available to the public; Make members’ votes available to the public; Publish plain language summaries of bills or policy oversight; Hold public hearings on bills. Hold public hearings on policy issues;

Transparency of Committees (cont.) Publicize public hearings; Publish invitations to public to attend or make submissions; Invite expert testimony to committee hearings; Issue press release on committee meetings; Open committee proceedings to public; Establish active petition committees to make public aware of function to receive grievances; and Involve civil society in committee work.

Committees Outreach: Provides Valuable Assessment Oversight Committees from 10 Parliaments assessed various social services provided to communities. Two methods of Social Accountability: The Community Score Card Citizens’ Report Card Committees have opportunity to interact and work with stakeholders in assessing outcomes and impacts. Parliamentarians were closer to the people at the grass root in the performance of their oversight responsibilities. Aided Committees in making informed views and arguments for reforms and improvements in Government policies and programmes.

Accessibility to Constituents Accessibility to constituents should be considered as a basic requirement to obligations as representatives of the people: Know the needs of the people; Report back to the people the laws that affect them; Make oneself accessible to the constituents and account to the people; and Offer and receive advice on specific needs and national governance.

Unit 7 Questions 1. What is parliamentary transparency, and what are its requirements? 2. How important is freedom and access to information for transparency? 3. Explain the key mechanisms for ensuring transparency of parliamentary committees. 4. Why do parliamentary committees need constituency outreach programs?