Drumming the drums for accountability: Explaining financial oversight performance by parliaments and supreme audit institutes in Africa

This dissertation is a response to the high levels of corruption worldwide, which affect the poorest part of the population disproportionally. Corruption accounts for Anything between 10% and 25% of public spending globally and public accountability mechanisms have an important role in curtailing corruption, notably in Africa. Political entrepreneurs promoting accountability in countries with widespread corruption are called ‘brave’.

Parliament is at the top of the democratic chain of accountability. Supreme Audit Institutes (SAIs) are the parliaments’ watchdogs. While SAI reports are generally disclosed to the general public, the SAI depends on parliament for follow-up of their recommendations. There is almost no research on these important public sector financial accountability mechanisms in Sub Sahara Africa. To fill this gap, I seek to answer the following question: Which factors offer the best explanation for the performance of parliamentary financial committees and Supreme Audit Institutes in Sub Sahara Africa?

This dissertation reviews the most frequent tool for public financial management monitoring in low- and middle-income countries and makes suggestions to take patronage systems better into account. It then uses small-N case studies in Zambia and Uganda as well as a large-N regression model including 91 low and middle income countries to identify factors that explain performance, and clarifies how these factors work over time and in these two country contexts.