PARLIAMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
organizations like civil society organizations more than ever before. Modern Legislatures also need to embrace every aspect of and opportunity afforded by emerging technologies to get their messages across. Our Parliament recognized the need to improve the public’s understanding and impression of its work, and is making use of modern technologies to raise the awareness and understanding of Parliament and its place in the democratic state. More importantly, this provides a platform through which the public engages with us. In recognition of the common
challenges with regards to effective public participation, our Parliament and the provincial Legislatures developed a Public Participation Framework which will ensure a common approach to effective and meaningful public participation in our country. The Public Participation Framework emphasizes that the process does not end once the public has been afforded an opportunity to express their views. Public participation is meaningful and effective if inputs from the public find expression in our parliamentary processes. Credible and inclusive participatory processes lead to public trust in our representational role as the people’s voice in government.
Entrenching the oversight culture – a new model Parliament has a central role to play in ensuring that government remains true to its policy commitments. The work of Parliament does not end with the passing of legislation and budgets; rather, it transforms into oversight mode to monitor, scrutinize and assess the impact of expenditure in relation to the country’s policy priorities.
Oversight of the executive is
often misunderstood by both the executive and the Legislature. Oversight is neither a fault-finding exercise nor intended to embarrass the government. It is instead aimed at enhancing accountability through the scrutiny of government policies and
spending in order to produce a better democratic outcome. There is a global trend towards
greater openness in government financial management, and around the world there are calls to strengthen public accountability and to re-examine how transparency and good governance can best be achieved. The need for strong parliamentary
scrutiny mechanisms as an essential part of promoting good governance and combating corruption is an accepted fact. In 2001 the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) recognized that effective parliamentary oversight depends on an active committee system within Legislatures that enables Members to penetrate below the surface of government administration and to make accountability real. The South African constitution requires Parliament to provide for
8 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa
effective mechanisms of oversight and to ensure that executive organs of state in the national sphere of government are accountable to it. Noting the gaps in our oversight
capacity, in 2009 our Parliament adopted an oversight and accountability model. The model’s primary objective is to provide the framework that describes how Parliament conducts oversight. It seeks to improve existing tools of parliamentary oversight, streamline components of the new oversight model with existing components, and enhance Parliament’s capacity to fulfil its oversight function in line with its new strategic direction of entrenching the culture of overseeing executive actions. The oversight model demands
that parliamentary processes also focus on the proactive detection of problem areas and bring these to the attention of the executive with, where possible, proposals providing
View of the National Assembly Chamber from the Speaker’s Chair.
solutions. Since the adoption of the model, there is a more co-ordinated and enhanced approach to oversight by committees and deeper scrutiny of government budget and policies. In 2011, our Parliament and
the provincial Legislatures, through the Speakers’ Forum, developed a legislative sector oversight model to provide for effective mechanisms to ensure that the government is held to account on its performance and more importantly that it delivers necessary services to society.
Financial scrutiny Public Accounts Committees play an important role as oversight mechanisms, and have helped Legislatures to fulfil their mandate of overseeing executive actions,
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