Parliament's Watchdogs â New Zealand 's Officers of Parliament

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136 Lesley Ferguson APR 25(2)The committee considered a proposal to extend the permanent appropriation tocover operational funding as well; this was seen by the incumbent officers ofParliament as the only way to ensure independence from the executive. Thecommittee did not accept this recommendation, preferring instead a mechanism toenable the House to approve each office’s annual vote in the Estimates ofappropriations process. The vehicle for this approval would be a special selectcommittee (the Officers of Parliament committee), chaired by the Speaker of theHouse and comprising three members from each side of the House. The committeewould also have the task of recommending the appointment of officers ofParliament and holding each officer accountable for their performance and theeffective discharge of their functions.Officers of Parliament CommitteeUndoubtedly the 1989 report of the Finance and Expenditure Committee set in trainfar-reaching reforms of officers of Parliament. The establishment of the Officers ofParliament Committee (as it is now called) was only a starting point. The modelcontinues to evolve.Today the Officers of Parliament Committee has multi-party representation andendeavours to function in a non-partisan manner. The Speaker, through the Officersof Parliament Committee, is required to consult with all of the political parties representedin the House and implement an appropriate process for the appointment ofnew officers of Parliament. The committee revised the appointment process in2002. 12FundingAs for funding of the offices of Parliament, the Public Finance Act 1989 wasamended following the Finance and Expenditure Committee’s inquiry to providefor the House to recommend to the Governor-General by way of an Address theEstimates to be included for each officer of Parliament in the annual Appropriationbill. This, in effect, is a pre-Budget approval of each office’s appropriations. Itinvests the House with the ability to make policy decisions on desired serviceprovision and funding. Further amendments to the Public Finance Act in 2004 haveimproved this process. The current practice is as follows:The Minister of Finance initiates the annual funding process with the officers ofParliament by asking them to submit directly to the Officers of ParliamentCommittee an estimate of the expenses and capital expenditure to be incurred bytheir offices for the next financial year and any top-up funds required for the currentfinancial year. (Before this process, each officer has presented to the House theirstatement of intent as required under the Public Finance Act 1989. In the case ofthe Controller and Auditor-General, this information is incorporated into theofficer’s draft annual plan prepared for presentation to the House under the PublicAudit Act 2001.)
Spring 2010 Parliament’s Watchdogs — NZ’s Officers of Parliament 137The officers’ budget bids are submitted to the Officers of Parliament Committee forconsideration and report. The committee hears evidence from the officersthemselves (in private) and asks Treasury for advice on the appropriateness of thebudget bids. Treasury also advises the committee on the criteria issued by theCabinet within which Budget bids are to be considered. The Officers of ParliamentCommittee reports to the House which, in turn, recommends the Estimates by wayof Address to the Governor-General. 13Performance and effectivenessIn its 1989 report the Finance and Expenditure Committee recommended that theOfficers of Parliament Committee should be responsible for holding each officeraccountable for their performance and the effectiveness of the way they dischargedtheir functions. However, in 1995 the Standing Orders Committee divided thefunctions hitherto undertaken by the committee, so that it then focused only onannual budget setting, functions relating to the appointment of auditors (of eachoffice of parliament), the creation of officers of Parliament, and the development ofcodes of practice. The reviewing of the spending and the performance of theofficers of Parliament was to be carried out by the relevant subject selectcommittees. 14Scrutiny of ReportsOfficers of Parliament have no powers to enforce their findings and therefore relyon the House to bring about the improvements or remedies sought in their reports.This mechanism ensures that an officer of Parliament cannot usurp the electedmembers of the House. The question arises, however, of whether this independenceof officers of Parliament reduces their effectiveness. A mechanism for following upofficers’ reports appears to be lacking in but desired by most Commonwealthjurisdictions.In its 1989-inquiry report the Finance and Expenditure Committee recommendedthat all reports of officers of Parliament be referred to the Officers of ParliamentCommittee for consideration and report to the House. This did not occur howeveruntil late in 2008.In 2007 New Zealand’s Officers of Parliament Committee expressed concern to theStanding Orders Committee that, upon being presented to Parliament, reports fromthe Controller and Auditor-General, the Ombudsmen, and the ParliamentaryCommissioner for the Environment did not stand referred to any particular subjectselect committee for consideration. Any select committee examination of thesereports was therefore ad hoc and, because committees had to invoke their inquiryfunction to examine an officer of Parliament report, scrutiny of them had becomeinfrequent. 15
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Parliament's Watchdogs â New Zealand 's Officers of Parliament