Committees of Inquiry
Some remarks on accountability in practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1325Keywords:
accountability of public authorities, committee of inquiry, parliamentary oversight of the governmentAbstract
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.
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