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

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)   Subscribe to the podcast or listen on your favourite platform. Recorded in August 2025.