A civil information technology organization, BudgIT, has launched a policy document on the assessment of the mandate of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, (PIAC).
Finding from the report indicated that, PIAC was fulfilling its mandate but was limited in resources due to the late disbursement of its allocated fund.
It also noted that most of the committee’s recommendations have not been fully implemented.
Therefore, the report proposed that PIAC should be given prosecutorial powers to make the committee responsible for prosecuting persons who mismanage or misappropriate oil and petroleum revenue.
A former Chairman of PIAC explained that the reason PIAC has no powers to prosecute is due to the provisions that were allowed in the law that instituted the committee.
According to him, parliament vehemently stood against PIAC’s ability to prosecute when it was proposed.
He narrated the processes as follows.
“The story behind PIAC has not been fully told. There were huge contestations around it. We all know that our constitution gives parliament the mandate to exercise public oversight over the executive.
“So, when the idea of a citizen-led oversight to watch over the executive and report to ordinary citizens was proposed, parliament saw it as an encroachment on its mandate and they swore heaven and earth to [take out] that provision from the law. It took CSO mobilization through negotiations to really keep PIAC in the law,” he noted.
Dr. Manteaw further noted that the decision to exclude the committee from prosecuting persons who breached the law was a compromise between the CSOs and parliament.
“The compromises were profound, all the time people talk about PIAC not having prosecutorial powers, the reason is, it was part of the negotiations with parliament because parliament said, look, you are taking over our work, and we won’t allow it, so we took the PIAC arrangement out of the draft bill.
So, the final consensus was that, let’s keep PIAC in the law, but only as an advisory body to parliament. So PIAC should be made to report to parliament, that is why when you look at the reporting lines, they are to parliament first and foremost,” he stated.
He further attributed the lack of implementation of recommendations made by PIAC to parliamentary forces. According to him, politics does not allow some recommendations to be adhered to by the legislature.
“PIAC reports to the finance committee in parliament and they are expected to act on the recommendations. But you know that usually, the majority will have more members in parliament, and when the recommendations go against them, of course, there is a pushback in terms of acting on them,” the former PIAC Chairman said.
SSD/FNOQ
