Committees of Inquiry: Some remarks on accountability in practice
Keywords:
accountability of public authorities, committee of inquiry, parliamentary oversight of the government, Responsabilidad de las autoridades públicas, comisión de investigación, control parlamentario del gobiernoAbstract
Committees of inquiry are a permanent part of parliamentary systems in most countries. They are designed as bodies referred to in extraordinary situations where a crisis or scandal raises questions about the accuracy and diligence of government action and calls into question the operation of regular mechanisms of executive oversight. The tasks of committees of inquiry are therefore an excellent environment for the enforcement of government accountability by the legislature. The paper examines how committees of inquiry in three parliamentary systems (Italy, Germany and Poland) are designed – what are the crucial factors and features of the legal framework for exercise of accountability? The second aim is to analyse how they have worked and what have been subject matter of COIs during last two decades. The experience of committees in the selected countries leads to the conclusion that – despite an important role in discovering and assigning blame for faults and maladministration – they are losing their ability to enforce governmental accountability, and parliaments seem to have abandoned the search for the real causes of undesirable phenomena in favour of managing blame and creating an impression of being involved in matters of interest to voters.
Las comisiones de investigación forman parte permanente de los sistemas parlamentarios de la mayoría de los países. Están concebidas como órganos a los que se acude en situaciones extraordinarias en las que una crisis o un escándalo plantean dudas sobre la exactitud y la diligencia de la acción gubernamental y ponen en tela de juicio el funcionamiento de los mecanismos habituales de control del ejecutivo. Por lo tanto, las tareas de las comisiones de investigación constituyen un entorno excelente para la aplicación de la responsabilidad gubernamental por parte del poder legislativo. El documento examina cómo están diseñadas las comisiones de investigación en tres sistemas parlamentarios (Italia, Alemania y Polonia): ¿cuáles son los factores y características cruciales del marco legal para el ejercicio de la responsabilidad? El segundo objetivo es analizar cómo han funcionado y cuál ha sido el objeto de las comisiones de investigación durante las dos últimas décadas. La experiencia de las comisiones en los países seleccionados lleva a la conclusión de que –a pesar de su importante papel en el descubrimiento y la atribución de culpas por faltas y mala administración– están perdiendo su capacidad de hacer cumplir la responsabilidad gubernamental, y los parlamentos parecen haber abandonado la búsqueda de las verdaderas causas de los fenómenos indeseables en favor de la gestión de las culpas y la creación de una impresión de estar involucrados en asuntos de interés para los votantes.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1325
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Copyright (c) 2022 Anka Młynarska-Sobaczewska
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