Financial oversight

Financial oversight

Around the world, WFD is helping to make countries’ political systems more accountable. In an accountable political system, citizens can hold people with power responsible for their decisions, usually via parliament and civil society.
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Parliamentary budget office staff in North Macedonia

Strengthening parliamentary oversight of public finances is vital to improve governance, transparency, and accountability.

Strong financial oversight ensures effective delivery of public services. It helps make sure that taxpayers’ money is raised and spent properly. In most political systems, parliaments have a role in approving budgets. They also review government spending to ensure that is efficient and effective. How governments spend taxpayers’ money is too important to be left unchecked. Elected representatives, especially at a time of great pressure on state budgets, must be empowered to scrutinise and control spending decisions.

WFD supports parliaments in the budget process. We focus on parliamentary committees' oversight role, including Public Accounts Committees (PACs) and Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs). For example, in Montenegro we support the SAI in developing and implementing guidelines for consistency and accessibility of SAI reports.

WFD’s work to help establish parliamentary budget offices (PBOs) in the Western Balkans region is one of its greatest achievements to date. The experience has encouraged countries in other regions to adopt similar initiatives.

What is a parliamentary budget office?

Parliaments need the right skills to actively and rigorously scrutinise and challenge spending proposals. So, many parliaments establish parliamentary budget offices (PBOs) or other in-house expertise to provide independent financial and economic analysis.

PBOs help parliaments track the governments’ fiscal and economic policies. PBOs provide non-partisan analysis in a user-friendly format for MPs.

The COVID-19 crisis had a dramatic impact on the economy and public finances of many countries, forcing countries to increase borrowing. As a result, the question of parliamentary oversight on public debt management (PDM) has gained importance in many WFD programme countries. WFD has worked in the Western Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa and the Maldives to raise awareness of the importance of parliamentary oversight of public debt. 

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Our expertise

Head of Practice, Accountability

Franklin is a democracy and governance expert with extensive experience in post conflict, fragile and transition countries. His areas of expertise are parliamentary strengthening, legislative impact analysis and scrutiny, institution building for anti-corruption and integrity, policy making on combatting illegal finance, and the oversight role of parliaments on public finances and public debt.

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Online event - 09 October 2024
Debt accountability to parliament

In the face of a global debt crisis, the need for stronger oversight and accountability in public debt management has never been more urgent. As governments navigate complex borrowing landscapes, the role of parliaments in ensuring responsible debt governance has come into sharper focus. 

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Online event - 06 November 2024
The voice of civil society: from the margins to the mainstream

When countries are in or at high risk of debt distress and need financial assistance, governments are the sole parties that negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), often with little input from civil society. Because of this, unpopular deals often lack legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. But active and inclusive civil society oversight can significantly enhance the legitimacy, transparency, and effectiveness of financial assistance programmes. 

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Online event - 20 November 2024
Taking the political economy of borrowing seriously

The origins of the current debt crisis are both historical and more recent. They include global power dynamics, international and regional barriers to trade and infrastructure development, national political histories and governance decisions around economic development, and climatic and other natural disasters.