Have Recent Financial Reforms Improved Financial Accountability in the Australian Commonwealth Public Sector?

Australasian Accounting Business & Finance Journal, Aug 2007 by Bowrey, Graham

A problem with questions taken on notice is that the information is provided back to the senator via the committee is not included in the readily available Hansard transcripts. There appears to be a tendency to take more difficult questions on notice which in turn reduces the level of transparency of the committee hearing. Indeed some senators will provide government organisations with lists of questions on notice without the questions even being asked during the committee. This level of silence reduces the transparency of the process and reduces the effectiveness of the committee.

The function of the senate legislation committee whilst improving the level of transparency and inturn being a tool for discharging government and parliament accountability is not seen as the best process but rather as the current process. For example ALP Senator Kim Carr an experienced government and opposition senator made the following comment about the effectiveness of estimates committees:

I have over the years spent much time in Senate Estimates hearings, which I enjoy greatly. But I don't believe that basic facts about the way the Commonwealth dollar is being spent, should have to be winkled out via this process (Carr, 2003, p. 10).

Senate Brief 10 states that "This process [senate estimates hearings] provides a vehicle for those committees to examine the performance of departments". It also allows senators - especially non-government senators - to gather information on the operations of government (Senate Brief 5). To assist the committee members have several sources from which to draw information to scrutinise the estimates and to formulate questions for the government organisation's officers. These include portfolio budget statements (PBS), portfolio additional estimates statements (PAES), annual reports of agencies, the reports of the auditor-general, corporate plans and other budget statements (Evans, 2004; Senate Brief 5). While this level of information appears it would be very useful for reviewing a government organisation's budget estimates it worth considering the background, education and employment, of the senators on these committees. Do the senators, particularly the committee members, have sufficient knowledge and experience to know what they are actually trying to examine? While the process may be a useful tool in assisting the parliament discharging the accountability of the government are the actors involved in the process know what they are reviewing? This concern is particularly significant at this point in time given that as at the 30th June 2007 of the 52 senators who currently sit on these committees only three have formal accounting qualifications and these three are all government senators.

The following section discusses the primary source of information for senators during the legislation committees, the portfolio budget statements (PBS), which contains the budget estimates of each government organisation for each government policy measure.