Reviewing the role of parliamentary Committees

A parliamentary standing committee is mandated to scrutinise the Budget and examine the bills referred to it by the chair. But the House rules do not say that all bills introduced in the House should be referred to the standing committee as a matter of course.
In addition, money bills, such as the Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill, are never referred to a standing committee or any other committee because these need to be passed within a specific time frame. Thus, the discretion about referring a bill to a standing committee justifiably rests with the chairperson in the House, who makes a decision after considering all relevant factors.

Importance of Parliamentary committees-

• These committees are the parliament’s principal instrument to ensure executive accountability, which is central in a representative democracy. Therefore, the structure of a committee, its mandate, the rules and directions governing it, the conventions it follows, the effectiveness of the overall control of the speaker and the chairman on these committees among factors warrant close examination.
• Indian parliamentary committees are a huge reservoirs of information, which are made available to MPs in order to enlighten themselves, and contribute ideas to strengthen the parliamentary system and improve governance. The committee system is designed to enhance the capabilities of MPs to shoulder greater responsibilities and broaden their horizons.

 Systemic weaknesses -

• There has been a steady decline in the effectiveness of the committees, caused by two main reasons. First, MPs are unable to pay attention to the committees as their constituencies make a huge demand on their time.
• Second reason, committee chair’s supervisory role has not proved to be effective. All the committees are under the overall control of presiding officers. So far no mechanism for a regular assessment of the performance of the committee has been put in place. The need to regularly monitor the committees cannot be overstressed.

Reforms needed for their effective fuctioning:

• If the chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha meet the chairmen of committees at least once in two months to discuss issues related to the committees, there will be a significant improvement in their functioning.
• Periodic experiments and reviews will bring about changes. No such attempts have been made in the Indian parliament in the past 64 years except to increase the total strength of the Houses and boost the security system. A systemic overhaul of the parliamentary committees is long overdue.

Public Accounts Committee and the challenges faced by it?

• The PAC’s power to scrutinise expenditure provides for Parliamentary oversight over Executive decisions and acts as a check on slackness, negligence and even wrongdoing on the part of the Executive.
• However, the lack of technical expertise hinders the PAC’s examinations. Officers are sometimes able to dodge PAC summons, which has prompted suggestions that it should have the power to hand out harsher punishments.
• It has been suggested by Institute of Public Auditors of India (IPAI) sought suo motu powers of investigation for the PAC.
•  The PAC had pitched for making the CAG and Auditor General (AG) accountable to Parliament.

Way Ahead:

•  PAC should be consulted on the appointment of the CAG, and that it should have powers to examine Public-Private Partnership projects.
• The report proposed that services of experts should be availed on technical matters, among other suggestions.

By: Deepak Thakur