House of Representatives Takes Part in IPU High-level Meeting on Supreme Audit Institutions

The Chairpersons of the Public Finance Control Committee and the Finance and Economic Development Committee, Rep. Latifa Lablih and Rep. Mohamed Chaouki, took part on Tuesday, October 4, 2022,  in a high-level meeting on Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), and their role in achieving greater audit impact, oversight, and accountability. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) organized the meeting in partnership with the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) via videoconference.

In her statement on occasion, Rep. Latifa Lablih noted that the House of Representatives has two committees in charge of the financial field, namely the Finance and Economic Development Committee, which undertakes the examination and adoption of the Finance Bill, and the Public Finance Control Committee, which is one of the mechanisms the House of Representatives uses to implement the constitutional principle of accountability.

Besides, the Chairperson of the Public Finance Control Committee underlined that Article 148 of the 2011 Constitution regulates the relationship between the Parliament and the Court of Accounts, as the latter is the body in charge of financial control. The said article stipulates that the Court of Accounts provides the Parliament with assistance in areas of public finance control and answers its inquiries and consultation requests related to the application of its legislation, control, and public policy evaluation competencies in the field of public finance.

The virtual gathering was also an occasion to discuss several public finance, audit, and accountability questions. In this respect, the participants tackled the factors that impact the relationship between the SAIs and parliaments, the institutional measures taken by parliaments in utilizing audit operations conducted by audit bodies, including the role of parliamentary committees, and the mechanisms of the SAIs. They also discussed the novelties brought by the 2017 second Global Parliamentary Report on “Parliamentary oversight: Parliament's power to hold the government to account" and the 2020 INTOSAI’s Development Initiative Global Stocktaking Report.