Finance, democracy and accountability: Juan Watterson on Public Accounts Committees in small jurisdictions Artwork

Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth

Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth, a podcast by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), gives a voice to Parliamentarians, civil society experts and activists across the Commonwealth to discuss common democratic challenges and share their ideas on what can be done to solve them. The CPA promotes knowledge of the constitutional, legislative, economic, social and cultural aspects of parliamentary democracy. Our work enables Commonwealth Parliamentarians and officials to uphold and strengthen parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, sustainable development and human rights.

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Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth

Finance, democracy and accountability: Juan Watterson on Public Accounts Committees in small jurisdictions

November 20, 2025 • Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

This episode of ‘Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth’, the CPA’s Podcast, was made in association with ‘Human Coined’, a Podcast series hosted by Geoff Dubrow, Founder and Principal Consultant at Nexus PFM Consulting Inc., a consulting firm specialising in horizontal approaches to policy issues, bringing together Parliaments, Ministries of finance, civil society organisations and others.

(https://nexuspfm.com/podcast/)

How can governments ensure that their public projects are good value for money, that spending is economic and efficient and that the public know where their money is going?

In this episode, Geoff Dubrow examines the role of Public Accounts Committees in the Commonwealth’s smallest jurisdictions. He spoke with Hon. Juan Watterson, who has served as Speaker of the Tynwald House of Keys and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the Isle of Man since 2016 and they discussed the unique setup of the Isle of Man Public Accounts Committee, the challenges of running Committees in a small jurisdiction and the increasing complexity of the work of PACs.

Music: Vine Crawler by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

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Recorded in August 2025.