Among the various mechanisms Parliament has for scrutinising the Government’s performance is the Annual Review Debate which happens this week on the Appropriation (2020/21 Confirmation and Validation) Bill.
It’s not as boring as it sounds, because it’s an opportunity for a broad ranging debate on how public money is spent - so all those people who get excited when The Budget gets delivered should be equally interested in this matching stage of the process.
The Leader of the House Chris Hipkins makes a point of order in the debating chamber Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Scrutiny of Appropriations
“The budget process is an ongoing one and it goes through multiple different stages. Actually passing the budget is only the first set of those stages,” explains Chris Hipkins, the Government’s Leader of the House.
“At the end of the financial year we then look at what’s been spent, did it achieve the outcomes that the Parliament intended when it set aside the money in the first place, and then we debate that again through the chamber; and one of the opportunities there is to make amendments - so to confirm and to validate changes that have been made to the budget since it was passed in the first place.”
A bunch of government ministers, including Hipkins, will be questioned on how budgeted money was spent and the performance gained in the process. It brings some of the conversations that happen at select committee level - where members have an opportunity to dive into the detail of the budget and highlight issues - into a more public forum.
Appropriating for Scrutiny
Before Parliament wraps up for the Easter Holiday, there’s an extra sitting on Thursday morning for some Members’ Bills to be attended to, then some Government legislation in the afternoon, including a motion to approve the appropriations for Officers of Parliament.
“These are the Ombudsman, the Auditor-General, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. They have a different budget process from almost every other government entity, in that their appropriations are confirmed directly by parliament and not by the government.”
In most cases of government entities, it’s the government that brings recommendations for the budget to Parliament. In the case of the officers which provide scrutiny of the government, in order to maintain their independence, recommendations for the funding are made by a cross-party committee of parliamentarians.
