• Accountability
• Government
• Private sector

Accountability

This paper discusses opportunities available under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) for civil society organisation (CSO's) to evaluate whether public resources are being properly managed. The Economic Governance and Management Section of the APRM questionnaire in particluar, gives CSO's an opportunity to evaluate how existing public resources are translated into effective realisation of socio-economic rights.

The paper offers a CSO-friendly means of interpreting Economic Governance and Public Resource Management. It identifies common problems that afflict the delivery of public services, and illustrate how CSOs can play a crucial role in monitoring public expenditure management and service delivery.

It helps citizens to find answers to the following questions to engage effectively with their elected political representatives and public officials on the management of public resources:

• what resources are available to government departments (or contracted private companies) to provide public services?
• what do departments (or private service providers) plan to do with these resources and how responsive are their plans to citizens’ needs?
• how effectively do these departments (or private service-providers) implement their plans?
• · what corrective action is taken in response to misallocation or abuse of public resources?
• how satisfactorily do departmental officials account to oversight bodies for their performance?
• what recommendations do oversight bodies make to improve officials’ performance, and are these recommendations implemented?

The paper distils these questions into five indicators of Economic Governance and Public Finance Management, and develops evidence-based tools for monitoring each indicator.

• strategic planning and resource allocation - the ability of any government to deliver effective public services starts with the strategic planning process; strategic plans are essential as they map out the course of action a given department is supposed to take to meet its service delivery commitments within budget
• expenditure management - sound financial management processes are essential to deliver quality public services; government departments are responsible for the effective, efficient, economical and transparent use of public resources
• internal controls and monitoring of performance - to make certain that budgeted funds are used efficiently, and that government departments are held accountable for their decisions, the latter should provide ongoing reports to executive authorities, treasuries and oversight bodies
• handling of misuse/abuse of resources - all states should have adequate laws governing the conduct of members of the executive, elected political representatives and public officials
• accountability to oversight institutions -to ensure effective delivery of public services oversight institutions such as supreme audit institutions and legislature standing committees must rigorously hold executing authorities to account

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