Analysis of the public accounts committee in Maltese parliament in holding the Maltese government accountable for its spending

Abstract

The power over money goes to the heart of all governments. Liberal democratic states are measured by how accountable those elected are towards those that elected them. Governments around the world are being pressured from their taxpayers to give more value for money through more accountability on their public spending. The Maltese Government is not the exception. This dissertation attempts to understand how the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Malta held the Maltese Government accountable for its spending during the period stretching from 1995 that was the first year of operations for the PAC in Malta during Legislature VII (1992 - 1996), till the year 1998 that was the end of Legislature VIII (1996 - 1998), in order to find out which one of the two PACs observed and applied better the philosophy of holding the Maltese Government accountable for its spending. This study is divided in two main parts. After examining the concept of the PAC on a theoretical basis, referring mostly to the PAC of the UK since it is considered as the "mother" of all P ACs around the world, the study analyzes in detail how, if at all, the PAC of Malta held the Maltese Government accountable for its public spending during Legislature VII (1992 - 1996) and Legislature VIII (1996 - 1998). In conclusion, the study shows that although Legislature VII was better in applying the philosophy of holding the Maltese Government accountable than the PAC of Legislature VIII, it could have never matched the much higher level of effectiveness of the PAC of the UK in holding the executive government accountable. As it appears that no such serious study had ever been carried out in the Maltese Islands, I hope that this dissertation will contribute to the work of other researchers who are interested in this particular area.