Presentation by Klaus Goetz, University of Munich, Germany, at the SIGMA conference of the network of Supreme Audit Institutions of EU Candidate and Potential Candidate countries and the European Court of Auditors. This conference was hosted by the Turkish Court of Accounts, it took place in Ankara on 8-9 November 2016.

1. © OECD
AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
SAI Network Conference
Developing Effective Working
Relationships between SAIs and
Parliaments
How parliaments Can Make Effective Use
of SAI Expertise
Ankara, 8-9 November 2016
Klaus H. Goetz
Chair for Political Systems and European Integration
University of Munich

2. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
1. What are the central challenges for the effective
use of SAI expertise in parliament?
• SAIs have traditionally focused on ex post analysis – parliaments focus
on the future
• SAI staff are specialists - parliamentarians are generalists
• SAIs have to be impartial and non-partisan – parliaments are partial
and partisan
• SAI expertise should be accessible to all parliamentarians and the
public – in parliaments, information is power
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3. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
2.Where to look for inspiration?
• SIGMA’s Principles of Public Administration, particularly about public financial
management (in particular Principle 16), in conjunction with the requirements of
Chapter 32 of the acquis communautaire;
• 2016 PEFA Performance Measurement Framework for public financial management
which, in its Pillar VII, contains indicators for the quality of legislative scrutiny of audit
reports;
• SIGMA’s 2002 Paper No 33 on Relations between SAIs and Parliamentary Committees;
• 2015 paper Co-operation for Accountability: The Supreme Audit Institution and Public
Accounts Committee Communication Toolkit, published by German GIZ on behalf of the
EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development,
• Scottish Parliament (2003) Parliamentary Audit: The Audit Committee in Comparative
Perspective
• Stapenhurst et al. (2015) Following the Money: Comparing Parliamentary Public
Accounts Committees, Pluto Press, London
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4. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
3. What needs to be considered when designing
effective parliamentary arrangements?
a) Organisational requirements
Powers and resources of PACs and other
committees interacting directly with SAIs,
especially:
• PAC size
• PAC composition and chairmanship
• PAC mandate
• PAC resourcing
• PAC - SAI staff interactions
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5. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
b) Procedural requirements
• Timeliness of parliamentary examination of SAI
reports
• Transparency of SAI information
• Openness of PAC deliberations
• Types of parliamentary recommendations
• Nature of follow-up
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6. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
4. What challenges and opportunities
lie ahead?
a) Changing parliamentary practices
• Trends in parliamentary legislation: taking impact seriously
• Trends in parliamentary oversight and control: from ex
post control to continuous monitoring
b) Implications for SAIs
• From legality to appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency
and sustainability
• From ex post auditing to ex ante advice
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7. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
5. Examples of innovative
practice
Germany:
Advisory SAI reports requested by parliament prior to the
adoption of legislation or major policy decisions. Recent
example: Report from late 2015 on the draft law proposed
by the Federal Government on the Modernisation of
Taxation.
France:
Committee for the Assessment and Control of Public
Policies
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8. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
Sweden:
Approximately 30 SAI effectiveness reports per year
Netherlands:
Working with review questionnaires (see P. Duisenberg
(2016), How MPs in the Dutch parliament strengthened
their budgetary and accounting powers, in: Public Money
& Management, Vol. 36, No 7, pp. 521-526).
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