Mechanisms of financial oversight:
1. Budgetary Scrutiny: Parliament through voting in demands for grants and various cut motions exercises her control over budget.
2. Efficiency check: Through mechanisms like question hour, various motions Parliament makes government accountable in the field of implementation of financial measures undertaken by government.
3. Committee Scrutiny:
a. Department related parliamentary standing (DRSCs)committees examines detailed estimates of different ministries with regard to expenditure components. Then Parliament examines budget in light of committees recommendations.
b. Parliamentary Committees like Public Accounts Committee (PAC) does the efficiency check while Estimates committee
examines estimates of ministries and whether the money allocated conforms to and is well within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates.
Suggestions to improve efficiency of financial control of Parliament:
1. Parliamentarians being laymen in the field of finance mostly don't understand it effectively so Parliament should create an assistance mechanism for them to train them in this field.
2. Link financial outlays to outcomes to make public exchequers money performance oriented.
3. Parliamentary Budget Office to conduct essential budget-related and financial research for Parliament.
4. Public Accounts Committee's findings should get due respect in Parliament.
5. Supplementary Demands are not scrutinised by DRSCs and there is no prescribed limit to how much of such expenditure can be approved by Parliament. This scenario should be reversed to make it transparent.
Various scams like coal block allocation, disproportionate assets of some politicians , fodder scam, MGNREGA misallocation exposed by CAG etc. are the proof of lacunas in financial oversight of Parliament which needs to be revamped to make it effective.
