New development: How MPs in the Dutch parliament strengthened their budgetary and accounting powers

Abstract

After experiencing a lack of political interest for financial and performance information in the Dutch House of Representatives, the author, a member of parliament, introduced a systematic approach for parliamentarians to review the country’s national budget and accounts. Drawing on corporate experience, the approach is a parliamentary version of a corporate audit committee working with a standardized review questionnaire. It gained wide support and is now used by several parliamentary committees. Nevertheless, the author raises various questions to the public accounting and control research community to improve the method and ensure its long-term use by politicians.

Keywords:

• Audit committees
• internalization
• politicians
• questionnaire
• structured review

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pieter Duisenberg

Pieter Duisenberg has been a Member of Parliament for the liberal party (VVD) in the House of Commons of the Netherlands since 2012. Before being elected, he worked for 20 years in the private sector.