1. Roles, Responsibilities of PAC Clerks: How to Write a Good Committee Report C LERK T RAINING ABUJA, NIGERIA N OVEMBER 8, 2013

2. Overview Supporting PACs: International Trends Administrative & Procedural Support Responsibility for Drafting Reports The Report Writing Process – Improving Reports – Useful Techniques – Improving Recommendations Peer Review of PAC Reports: a Suggestion

3. Common Problems Facing PACs (PAC Workshop, London 2013) Skills of Members Lack understanding of the workings of government/financial scrutiny Unclear of their role in holding the executive to account The Range of oversight requirement across the width of PFM Resources Finding enough parliamentarians to form strong committees Adequate skilled support from parliamentary staff Rules and Procedures The powers of PACs are often not clear or inadequate

4. Common Problems Facing PACs (PAC Workshop, London 2013) Political Volatility –Frequent party changes, high turnover of MPs make it difficult for PACs to work effectively Corruption –If Corruption levels are high and tolerated, even the most transparent and open PAC may have difficulty in gaining impacts. Limited support from SAI/Audit Office –Backlog of accounts –Limited efforts to brief the PAC –Lack of follow-up/enforcement of SAI work

5. PACs: Outputs and Outcomes Problem of outputs and outcomes from PAC Reports The report is the PAC’s principal output. Recent research (Pelizzo 2011) demonstrates that the activity of a PAC committee is not enhanced by the fact that the Chair belongs to the opposition. The number of opposition MPs does have an impact on the number of meetings, but has no significant impact on the number of reports drafted by the Committee (the presence of larger staff is more important).

6. PAC Support Staff Previous research into the relationship between parliamentary committees and supreme audit institutions emphasized the quality of legislative staff as a factor of success for oversight activities. According to Wehner (2002), “at a minimum, the Committee should have a clerk and a secretary”. Larger PACs tend to have a lower ratio of dedicated staff to committee members compared to smaller PACs (Buzaljko 2010). The absence of a dedicated research capacity can be compensated to a certain extent with the expertise of the audit institution (Wehner, 2002).

7. PAC Support Staff (Ngozwana 2009) CountryClerk/SecretaryResearcherLegalOtherTotal Botswana6511 Lesotho11 Malawi314 Namibia33 Mozambique33 South Africa2114/5? Swaziland11 Tanzania11 Zambia123 In Botswana, the five ‘other’ are additional staff from Parliament whose responsibility is to assist with drafting committee reports. Working facilities Adequate 6 67% Not adequate 3 33%

8. Training, Staffing and Facilities: Nigeria (Ekeyi 2008) The typical PAC in Nigeria has 6 full time staff members: – 4 staff members are dedicated to the PAC – 2 provided by the AG – 1 staff member provided by govt departments Staff do not regularly engage in research activities

9. PAC Staffing: British Isles

10. Staffing and Facilities: Canada and South Asia All PACs in Canada have a clerk serving the committee Only one Canadian PAC (federal) has a dedicated clerk serving the PAC on a full-time basis. Twelve of 14 jurisdictions have some form of research support (only the federal PAC has dedicated research staff on a full-time basis) The typical PAC in South Asia has: – 4 staff members dedicated to the PAC – 1 or 2 staff members shared with other committees – 1 staff member provided by the AG Majority of PAC staff in South Asia engaged predominantly on administrative matters.

11. Roles of the Secretariat: Czech Republic and Slovenia (Buzaljko 2010) SloveniaCzech Republic Preparation of MeetingsYes Drafting of ReportsYesNo Drafting of TranscriptsYesNo Provide recommendations for resolutions YesNo AdministrationYes ResearchNo Communication with SAIYes Communication with ParliamentYes Media RelationsSometimesYes

12. Responsibility for Drafting PAC Reports Preparation of the report is one of the most challenging tasks facing committee staff. Key question: is a report even necessary? Clerks responsible for drafting PAC reports in British Isles but the Audit Office produces the first draft in UK. Reports are normally externally verified prior to finalization (AG and/or ministry/department). PAC decisions are normally reached by consensus, but this is usually the working practice or convention. Indeed in many jurisdictions, unanimous approval is not required for a report to be presented (almost 50% in SADC).

13. The Report Writing Process (Canadian Parliamentary Centre) A report is best prepared as soon as possible after the PAC concludes an Inquiry. Some PACs report only once a year on all their work, but reporting on each Inquiry has the advantage of getting implementation started sooner. Usually involves in camera discussions prior to formal approval at a public inquiry. A steering or sub-committee may be appointed to oversee the process (e.g. Nepal). The report-writing process can be more efficient if the committee has set objectives for the inquiry in advance (and effective minutes/transcripts are available).

14. Improving Reports (National Audit Office 2011) Sitting and reviewing the complete set of evidence to highlight the most important facts and findings Using the findings to create a compelling argument that is based on sound evidence Structuring the report in a logical order which will guide the reader through the arguments Writing the report in clear jargon-free language Keeping the report brief, and using charts and headings to guide the reader through the material Providing a summary containing the main arguments and conclusions; and Writing recommendations which will secure impact and improvement

15. Useful Techniques Schedule a report planning meeting: discuss the main areas of interest and findings which emerged from the meeting or inquiry. Consider how they might form sections of the report. Conclusions & recommendations are often best set out in the summary and should be clearly signposted. Start each conclusion with a clear statement of the problem, not with the recommendation itself. Use informative headings and sub-headings to break up the text and guide busy readers towards particular areas they may be interested in. – Include a table of contents which summarises those headings and sub-headings.

16. Tips for the Actual Report Pay particular attention to the first line of each paragraph to help a busy reader skimming the report to identify paragraphs that may be of interest. Use bullet points and lists to summarise information where appropriate Use numbers, percentages and proportions as much as possible in the conclusions, rather than phrases like ‘the majority’ or ‘few’. This helps the conclusions be more specific. Provide footnotes with references to other published sources of evidence the report is drawing on.

17. Improving Recommendations Recommendations are where the Committee can achieve real impact and change. – Sufficient to endorse the recommendations of the SAI? Is it necessary to go beyond that contained in the AG’s report? Powerful recommendations are clear and unambiguous about: – what needs to be done; – why it needs to be done – who needs to do it – when should it be done by In some cases a time frame for response may be necessary. Any response the committee has received to recommendations, or discussion during the hearings of the recommended course of action could also be included in the report.

18. Drafting Recommendation: Tips Think about recommendations as early as possible, not as an add-on at the end of the inquiry; build on good examples from past reports Think about the different stakeholders who the PAC is trying to influence with the recommendations, and decide what is likely to work best with each; Avoid unduly minor or bureaucratic recommendations, keep the big picture in mind and improvements to service users Write the recommendations in ways that make implementation easier for the government ministry or agency and will allow the PAC to tell whether or not they have been implemented.