Latest update January 11th, 2025 4:10 AM
Mar 17, 2021 News
Kaieteur News – A meeting of the parliamentary oversight body – the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) – was again on Monday last abruptly halted without addressing the primary matter on its agenda, namely a motion calling for the removal of Opposition Member of Parliament, David Patterson, as Chairman of that body.As such, Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, has since committed to seeking independent legal advice on the way forward.
Monday’s manifestations in the Committee meeting were reminiscent of its February 4 meeting, where a motion was put by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, to have Patterson be removed as Chairman. The government has been seeking Patterson’s removal as head of the PAC since the publicizing in January of this year of him having received expensive gifts – including a $900,000 gold bracelet – from several government agencies under his control, while he served as Minister of Public Works under the David Granger administration.
That February session was also abruptly halted when Patterson refused to proceed with a vote on the motion. He had temporarily excused himself acting as the Chair, while other opposition members refused to take up the post. The PAC is chaired by an opposition member at all times, in keeping with the Constitution of Guyana.
Teixeira in an invited comment yesterday told Kaieteur News that her party has since begun actively exploring the possibility of bringing a motion of no confidence against Patterson in the full House.
She explained that at the last meeting, it was found that her motion was properly put to the Committee but this was objected to since the matters were deemed ‘dead by the opposition.’
The rationale, according to Minister Teixeira, was that they were not dealt with at the last meeting.
Teixeira objected to this proposition – a position since vindicated by the Clerk – that matters which had not been completed at the previous meeting, be dealt with at subsequent meetings.
The Clerk of the Assembly was called in to adjudicate and noted that the motion had been properly put, but Patterson again refused to Chair the proceedings and instead opted to sit in another room in the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, where parliamentary sessions are currently being held.
She explained that during this time, Patterson had not formally recused himself as Chair of the proceedings.
Teixeira noted that the Clerk subsequently solicited legal advice from Attorney-at-Law, Sanjeev Datadin, but this was objected to by members of the political opposition.
Their contention, according to Teixeira is that Datadin is a government-aligned lawyer. According to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Minister, her party has since requested of the Clerk the same accommodation, to which he has since acquiesced.
According to Teixeira there is precedent with regards the recourse available to the Clerk and noted that at the first Committee meeting it is the Clerk that would invite nominations for the chair, conduct elections and then hand over the chairmanship to the successful Member of Parliament. This is the case, she said, with the election of Speaker of the National Assembly.
She was adamant that the actions of the PAC Chairman serve only to prevent the constitutional body from scrutinizing the expenditure of the APNU+AFC’s expenditure while in office.
At present, the PAC is addressing the Auditor General’s report for 2016. It was at the time of the scrutinizing of the expenditure for the Ministry of Public Infrastructure where Teixeira noted that a number of problems had come up, which led to the motion in the first place.
Jan 11, 2025
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