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Parliamentary Control Over Administration
Theory & Practice of Public Administration (PA 56)
Aklan State University
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PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL OVER ADMINISTRAION
INTRODUCTION
In all systems, parliamentary or presidential, control of the administration by the legislature is important. Legislature is most effective and real instrument of controlling public Administration. It is feared that if control over public administration is relaxed, administration will try to act arbitrarily and would become very corrupt. As such, legislative control is very important to prevent irresponsibility and to avoid the evils of public Administration. Io modern democratic states, people exercise control over administration through their elected representatives (members of the legislature) the legislature looks after the work of the government on their behalf. The legislature is the source of all administrative authority. It is the legislature which lays down the public policy – the work programme. It decides the nature and scope of administration
In a parliamentary system, such as India and Great Britain, it is primary important because all states activities emanate from the legislature. The cardinal principle of parliamentary system is the responsibility of the executives to the legislature. The executive therefore, cannot afford to be irresponsible. He has to be responsible for each an every act of his civil servant. The responsibility of administration is thus indirect because it is enforced through the executive. The official cannot be called to the floor of the House to explain his act. It is the minister who shoulders the responsibility for the administrative acts of the department. If he is unable to satisfy parliament, he has to quit office. Sometime, the entire ministry may have to quit the office because ministerial responsibility in a parliamentary system is collective. Thus, we find that the legislatures control on administration is indirect, i.
3 Law Making Process
The legislature makes the law which determines the organisation, functions and procedures of public administration. A new department may be created to give effect to a particular law enacted by the parliament. However, the legislature control through the law making process is very general. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the legislature to attempt to lay down in details the administrative procedures to be followed. Generally, the task of laying down the detailed rules is left to the executive who is known as Delegated legislation. But the executive makes the rules within the ambit of its authority, delegated by the legislature. It cannot transgress the limits of its authority. Sometimes, the legislature may require these rules to be placed before it for approval. In every democracy, there is a committee on delegated legislation to examine these rules and report back to the house about their authenticity. Just as the legislature may create new powers and functions, similarly it may make changes in them. It may also give the
executive the power to make essential adjustments. Thus, in a general way the organisation of public administration is determined by the legislature.
Question Hour
Questions constitute a very powerful device of parliamentary control over administration. In parliamentary democracies, there is a question hour which is the opening hour of the parliament meetings. During the question hour, any member of the house can ask questions to seek information in respect of any matter. The members are expected to give a notice of their questions to the ministers. The ministers concerned prepare their responses with the aid of the civil servants in the departments. The minister is expected to respond to the question but he/she can also decline to answer a question on the ground that disclosing information regarding that particular matter is not in the public interest.
Sometimes, the question hour is followed by half-an hour discussion if a member feels dissatisfied with the answer given to his/her question. During this short discussion, the house may extract more information on matters of public policy from the government or may put more pressure upon his or her policy in accordance with the wishes of the opposition parties. The question is very important because it exercises a very healthy check on administration. W. Munro says, “It is an effective check upon those bureaucratic tendencies which are bound to appear in every government. It keeps the experts responsive to a body of laymen. As a palladium of his rights and liberties, it is worthy to be ranked with trial by jury and the writ of habeas Corpus”. Although the motive of these questions may be political, i. to sink the minister at whom they are directed or the government to which he belongs, yet they play an important part in the mechanism of control over public administration.
The question hour has been described as a search light turned on the activities of administration. Due to parliamentary questions, administration is carried against a background of awareness of responsibility to parliament and the public. This keeps the administration open. A minister has to be constantly asking him/herself, not merely whether his/her the proceedings and proceedings of those for whom he/she is responsible are legally or technically defensible, but what kind of answer he/she can give if questioned about them in the house, and how that answer will be received.
This device of questions, according to Lowell, helps greatly ‘not only to keep the administration up to the mark, but to prevent growth of bureaucratic arrogance”. In short, questions represent a very powerful method of parliamentary control over administration. The question hour in the parliament keeps the civil servant on his/her toes. It compels him/her to be alert and circumspect in his/her actions and often prevents
The parliament as a whole is some times not in a position to go into details of the working of various administrative departments, due to lack of knowledge about their activities. Thus, it makes use of committees who can go into the depth of their working of different departments and keep a constant watch on their functioning. Some of the important committees are:
Public Accounts Committee Estimates Committee Committee on Public Undertakings Committee on Assurances, Committee subordinates legislature, etc.
Basically, the first three committees deal with financial control of public administration. As mentioned earlier, the public accounts committee scrutinises the report of the auditor- general concerning the propriety of expenditure incurred by administrative departments and then reports its finds to the legislature. The estimate committee examines the estimates (proposals of expenditure in the budget) sent by different ministries before they are considered for debates and discussions by the parliament. Its main role is to suggest economics in expenditure. The public undertaking committee as the name implies scrutinizes the reports and accounts of the public sector undertaking. It also examines the public sector undertakings as being managed in accordance with sound business principles. In fact, it evaluates the overall performance of such undertakings.
The committee on assurance is responsible for ensuring that the assurance given by the minister from time to time is implemented within time frames. Sometimes, this ministers during question hour or debates give and assurance or make some promises regarding certain issues on the floor of the House. Formally, it was left to the individual members to keep an eye on whether the promises were fulfilled or not. The government had no obligation to make the reports to anybody weather or not the assurance have been carried out. Ministers were, therefore tempted to make false promises to please certain members. But now the rules of procedure of the house of the legislature provides for the setting up of the committee on assurance which consists of some members of the house and functions under the control of the senate president or speaker as the case would be.
The committee or subordinate legislation exercises the necessary checks over the authority delegated to the executive from time to time. In many democratic states, delegated legislation is a common practice; the parliament simply lays down broad principles and leaves the procedural details to be framed by the executive. This committee keeps a control over power of delegated legislation. However, whatever has been said above of legislative control over administration holds true of parliamentary system. Under the presidential system of government of Nigeria and U.S. most of the
means of legislative control described above are not available. Thus the legislature in a presidential system can neither put question to the ministers nor can it pass a no- confidence or censure motion against the government. The executive does not sit in the Congress/National.
Parliamentary Control Over Administration
Course: Theory & Practice of Public Administration (PA 56)
University: Aklan State University
