21 Aug 2022

Parliamentary oversight function is critical in achieving improved financial accountability and promoting good governance in the public sector, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Pono Moatlhodi has said.

Speaking during the Souther African Development Committee  Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC) Peer Review and Training workshop in Gaborone recently, Mr Moatlhodi said the oversight function in turn increased public confidence in the credibility of government institutions.

He said as a way of ensuring accountability, Parliaments had a number of processes and strategies to ensure that governments accounted for their actions in the use of public resources and finance.

He stressed the need for the general public to have confidence in government institutions in order to consolidate democratic ideals and value adder principle.

Mr Moatlhodi said it was therefore imperative that Parliaments were enabled to conduct their budgetary oversight function, through high level technical support, access to information and others.

He said financial oversight committees also needed to conduct their affairs in a more transparent manner, with  efficiency, while ensuring citizens also become involved, as primary stakeholders.

He said with international focus now on improving governance in institutions and country systems, many world Parliaments were today seeking to improve their performance to become more open, independent, accountable and overly responsive.

Mr Moatlhodi thus urged SADCOPAC to put in place and strengthen strategies to detect and prevent lack of prudent financial planning, lack of oversight in the procurement processes and possible wastage of public funds emanating from inherent corruptive practices.

He said the training was meant to provide an opportunity for all to learn and share best practices and innovations and where possible, harmonise and standardise the work of Public Accounts Committees (PAC) in the SADC region.

Mr Moatlhodi expressed the need to improve the quality and performance of PACs and other financial oversight bodies by strengthening their requisite support staff in terms of qualifications and experiential knowledge.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition, who is also the chairperson of Botswana PAC, and the secretary general of the SADCOPAC, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse called for improvement of the quality and performance of PACs and their support staff through timely peer reviews.

Mr Keorapetse said lack of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms by PACs remained the greatest factor in accounting for corruption and misuse of public funds.

He hailed the workshop, adding that before the adoption of SADCOPAC constitution, PACs in the region operated in isolation.

Mr Keorapetse said the workshop came at the right time, after the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said had exposed shortcomings and ‘at the same time taught us new ways of doing things’.

“We have observed and learned that parliamentary operations need urgent transformation in order to move away from the traditional way of only conducting business face to face, to accommodate new ways of doing things without neglecting the core functions of Parliament,” he said.

He requested members to strive to live to the founding ideals of SADCOPAC by promoting accountability, good governance and transparency in the SADC member states.

Mr Keorapetse spoke against public funds misappropriation, misuse as well as administrative lapses and called for efforts to strengthen public finance management and improve the strength and work on eliminating the weakness.

In his remarks, the chairperson of SADCOPAC, Mr Warren Mwambiza from Zambia, recommended benchmarking, saying it provided oversight to ensure accountability and good governance among the SADC countries.

Mr Mwambiza thanked Botswana for hosting the Peer Review exercise. 

The training focused on key aspects of procurement, value for money, institutional strengthening, financial and compliance audits as well as  internal control, programme-based budgeting, medium term expenditure frameworks and financial management assessment methodologies such as the public expenditure and financial accountability, as per the dictates of the SADCOPAC strategic plan, which was enacted in 2018.

Such capacity-building workshops are meant to enable members of PACs to acquire relevant skills and knowledge in analysing and scrutinising reports from auditor generals and other authorities, so as to improve public accountability in the diligent utilisation of public funds. BOPA