REPORT OF THE ECOSOC PANEL ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY: The Role of Public Accountability in Good Governance

Transcription

1 REPORT OF THE ECOSOC PANEL ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY: The Role of Public Accountability in Good Governance Monday, 14 July 2008, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Conference Room 5, United Nations, New York Summary: The Department of Economic and Social Affairs through the Division for Public Administration and Development Management organized on Monday, 14 July 2008 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Panel on Public Accountability entitled The Role of Public Accountability in Good Governance for ECOSOC Member States. It was organized to support the conclusions of ECOSOC s 2008 Annual Ministerial Review on Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development Held in New York in July The Panel was also organized to celebrate the 60 th Anniversary of the United Nations Programme on Public Administration and to highlight its contributions to the strengthening of accountability and transparency in governance. The Panel outlined the following conditions and variables likely to be conducive to public accountability: (i) Education in leadership, (ii) Partnering with the private sector, (iii) Meaningful engagement and involvement of civil society in audit and governance, (iv) Effective and independent audit institutions as watchdogs of public finances, (v) Political will, and (vi) Financing for development. A. Opening of the Panel 1. The Panel was initially chaired by Mr. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary of DESA for Economic Development who outlined the objectives of the Panel. 2. The Welcome Remarks were made by the Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. Sha Zukang. 3. Mr. Sha Zukang, the Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, focused on the crucial role played by accountability in sustainable development and emphasized that accountability and sustainability often go together as public accountability fuels efficient development processes and fosters social learning. He also pointed to the interdependence between national and international public accountability. 4. The Introductory Statement was made by the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), H.E., Mr. Léo Mérorès. 1

2 5. Mr. Léo Mérorès, the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), underlined the inextricable linkages found between accountability and the Millennium Development Goals. He enumerated at least three such linkages through which the MDGs contribute to the building and reinforcing of public accountability: Responsibility for effective service delivery, dedication to inclusive governance, and commitment to combating corruption. B. Panel Presentations 6. Mr. M. Adil Khan, former Chief of Socio-economic Governance and Management Branch of the Division of Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of UNDESA, explained how civic engagement in audit can strengthen public accountability towards the achievement of the MDGs. 7. He indicated three pillars of public accountability, namely (i) citizens right to know, (ii) results, and (iii) expenditures regularity, to which citizens could effectively contribute. Mr. Khan also touched upon the limitations of current auditing, including not widely disseminated audit reports, lack of due regard to performance or value, poor parliamentary oversight, political influence over the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), and low media interest, which can all be mitigated with CSO participation. 8. Mr. Khan s presentation laid out the channels through which the CSOs can potentially contribute to public accountability, including by building literacy on public financial management, detecting malfeasance, mounting pressure to comply with audit recommendations, providing monitoring initiatives and oversight. 9. H.E. Mr. Abderahim Ould Elhadrami, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in his introductory remarks, put emphasis on the important role of civil society in sustainable development and stated the benefits, that the newly created Department in charge of Relations with the Civil Society, the Platform of Non-State Actors and the Fund for Making the Non-Governmental Organizations More Professional (FAPONG), have brought to the strengthening of participatory governance in Mauritania. 10. H.E. Mr. Abderahim Ould Elhadrami concluded his remarks by expressing his gratitude to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) for organizing this panel and for its contributions to the Arab-African Network for Citizen Participation (AACEN). 11. On behalf of the Minister in charge of the Relations with the Parliament and the Civil Society of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mr. Abdallahi Ould Vettah, Coordinator of FAPONG, highlighted the importance of the variable of political willingness in transforming public accountability into administrative culture. 12. He outlined four fronts at which Mauritania has led its strategic fight against corruption: (i) mechanisms and logic of corruption, (ii) public administration in the face of corruption, (iii) corruption in extractive industries, and (iv) re-establishing the rule of law. 13. Toward these ends, legislations and regulations aiming to increase transparency, such as the declaration of possessions by government officials, were passed. A Commission for Financial Transparency in Public Life was established. Public agents and their 2

3 accountabilities to each other and to citizens were clarified. Financing of political parties and incumbents was made transparent and percentages and modalities of contributions were prescribed by law. 14. Mr. Ould Vettah also explicated that civil society has contributed to the reforming of legislation governing the formation of associations, as visible in the example of the Fund for Making the Non-Governmental Organizations More Professional (FAPONG). FAPONG has three objectives: (i) mobilize resources to combat poverty; (ii) strengthen capacity of the NGOs and promote professionalism; (iii) create a transparent framework for allocation and utilization of resources. 15. Mr. Jonathan Paris, the Senior Policy Advisor in the Mohamed bin Issa (MBI) International & Partners, directed the focus of attention to yet another dimension of public accountability, namely the process of building leadership. As such, Mr. Paris presentation emphasized the importance of education and training for leadership in strengthening state capacity and transparent governance, thereby directly contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 16. Mr. Paris also underscored the crucial role that the private sector can play in this process. He demonstrated how the private sector can supplement the resources at the disposal of national and local governments, both in the MENA region and elsewhere. 17. H.E. Mr. Jorge Hage, the Minister of the Comptroller General Office, Government of Brazil, presented the case of Brazil s Internal Audit Unit and the Anti-Corruption Agency, which controls the Federal Government s direct spending, transfers to States and Municipalities, and transfers to citizens. 18. H.E. Mr. Hage outlined the main preventive activities, including increasing transparency and social control, strengthening management and the implementation of International Conventions, improving legal framework and supporting research and education on ethics and the combating of corruption. 19. H.E. Mr. Hage also enumerated three additional mechanisms of fighting corruption and increasing accountability: (i) Transparency Portal as an audit tool, incentive for social control, citizen empowerment, public management and corruption mitigation; (ii) Training of public agents, council members, municipal leaders, teachers and students; and (iii) The Programme of Keeping an Eye on Public Money, which involves society through education, access to information, and social mobilization. 20. Mr. Josef Moser, the Secretary-General of the International Organization of Supreme Audits Institutions (INTOSAI) and President of the Austrian Court of Audit, examined the role of supreme audit institutions and of INTOSAI in promoting transparency and accountability. 21. Mr. Moser stressed that audit is not an end in itself but an indispensable part of a regulatory system whose aim is to reveal deviations off legality, efficiency, effectiveness, and economy of financial management early enough to take corrective action and to make those responsible to compensate, thereby rendering the occurrence of breaches less frequent. 3

4 22. Mr. Moser outlined how SAIs contribute to public accountability, including by (i) reporting their audit findings and recommendations to the Parliaments and publicizing their results via the media; (ii) raising awareness in regard to public financial management issues and enabling citizens to hold their governments responsible; (iii) strengthening trust of parliaments, governments, citizens and civil society in effective government audit, thereby contributing to national stability, economic growth, good governance and the fight against corruption. 23. Mr. Moser s presentation also drew attention to the importance of the independence of SAIs, while recognizing the value of continuous cooperation with regional, national, international organizations and civil society. 24. Ms. Rachel Mayanja, the Assistant Secretary General and the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women to the Secretary General, at this juncture took over as Chair of the Panel and thanked the Panelists for their valuable contributions. 25. Ms. Mayanja, drew attention to two common points stressed in all of the Panel presentations: (i) fight against corruption through innovative means and modalities, such as the appropriate use of the Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), capacitybuilding and development, and participatory governance; and (ii) the mounting initiatives to include the citizens and civil society, be it as right-holders, service-recipients, electors, voters or civil society members, in the drive towards strengthened public accountability. 26. Ms. Mayanja then opened the floor to discussion. C. Questions and Answers in the Panel: 27. In the questions and answers session, H.E. Mr. Jorge Hage responded to a question regarding Brazil s initiatives of results-oriented accountability initiatives. He underlined the necessity to take a gradual approach in the transition from a patrimonial administrative culture to one based on performance management and results. Mr. Hage also underlined the crucial weight of legal and financial accountability, in addition to results, in creating the propitious ground for strengthening public accountability. 28. In response to a question on digital inclusion, Mr. Hage, pointed out that citizens right to privacy, including of the poor, is protected and becomes public when the funds used for supporting their empowerment, including through programmes of connection to Internet, partnerships with local governments and scholarships, are also public. 29. Mr. Hage also drew attention to the complex relationship between transparency and corruption. He pointed that since efforts to increase transparency, including increased access to information, may lead to the discovery of accountability problems previously unknown, this can increase the perceptions of corruption. Mr. Hage, thus, stated the less than satisfactory nature of data measuring corruption based solely on perceptions. 30. H.E. Mr. Abderahim Ould Elhadrami stressed the importance of social and economic development as an equally indispensable ingredient in public accountability as good governance. He praised the efforts of the United Nations in ensuring the harmony between 4

5 the notions and practice of good governance and socio-economic development and fleshed out the significant role of financing in public accountability and civic engagement. 31. The Panel concluded with the announcement by Mr. Jacinto De Vera, the Panel Secretary and Chief of the Socio-economic Governance and Management Branch of the Division of Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of UNDESA, that the Panel proceedings and presentations would all be posted on the website of the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) at In response to the query of the Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Brazil, Mr. De Vera stated DESA will build on the outcome of the Panel in its on-going work on public accountability and will continue to support the deliberations of the ECOSOC in this area. D. Conclusion of the Panel: 32. Overall, the Panel concluded that accountability can be increased and sustained through (i) Education in leadership, (ii) Partnering with the private sector, (iii) Meaningful engagement and involvement of civil society in audit and governance, (iv) Effective and independent audit institutions as watchdogs of public finances, (v) Political willingness, and (vi) financing for development. 33. The Panel put particular emphasis on the fight against corruption and the increased involvement of civil society in governance as two crucial mechanisms of strengthening public accountability. It clarified the links between public accountability and effective public administration. 32. The Panel was also instrumental in demonstrating south-south cooperation for advocating public accountability and stressing the importance of the independence of audit institutions and their cooperation with civil society towards the effective achievement of the MDGs. The Panel also created auspicious conditions for possible cooperation between the private sector and civil society initiatives. 5