The accountability funtion of supreme audit institutions in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania

Abstract

Despite the important accountability functions assigned supreme audit institutions, little is known about their actual functioning and we have scant information about how supreme audit institutions interact with other stakeholders in the budget process. This report provides a comparative study of the supreme audit institutions in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. In order to understand how supreme audit institutions function their institutional capabilities are assessed through comparing their mandate, capacity and autonomy. The impact of the supreme audit institutions on actual policy is examined by comparing their relational resources i.e. how they interact with other institutions and agents in the political system and draw support from the environment. This include interactions with parliament, civil society and the donor community. The final part summarises the findings and compares the overall performance of the supreme audit institutions in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. The report was originally commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).