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Govt. fails in bid to remove Patterson as PAC Chair
Kaieteur News – The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has failed in its bid to remove Alliance for Change (AFC) General Secretary, David Patterson, as Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly.
PAC Chairman, David Patterson
The decision was relayed on Thursday by Patterson during a virtual press briefing held by the AFC.
According to Patterson, when the Committee resumed its meeting this week and having received the legal advice—which was widely circulated and solicited by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs—it was found that it went beyond the scope of what was requested. As such, the report was discarded altogether.
According to Patterson, the lawyer—Kevon Best—was asked to simply respond to the question of a Standing Order being able to override another.
The Standing Orders are the rules under which the business of the Standing Committees of the National Assembly is conducted.
Patterson said, since the advice went beyond the scope of what was requested, the Committee could not adopt the report from the lawyer and, “so therefore, there was no way forward.”
According to Patterson, “…at the end, obviously, the report was struck out; there was no way forward.”
This, he said, led to the next item on the agenda for the PAC meeting being the No Confidence Motion to remove him as Chairman.
The AFC General Secretary indicated that, “obviously having no way forward, the motion was not allowed.”
He explained that “if the motion was allowed and we started discussing it, we would end up actually where we were on three previous occasions. Therefore, what was done, we moved on, it was disapproved and we moved on.”
The AFC General Secretary did indicate that in moving forward with the PAC Agenda, “we had full participation, participation from both the opposition as well as the government side on those matters and we are slated to meet again next Monday for continuation of the examination (budget) agencies.”
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan, who also provided internal legal advice to his party on the way forward with regards the removal of the PAC Chairman, indicated that what Patterson’s action at the Committee level did, was to disqualify the motion that was submitted by the government’s side to have him removed as Chairman.
He was adamant “there is no precedent anywhere in the Commonwealth for a No Confidence Motion against a Chairperson who is appointed by the main opposition.”
With the motion disqualified, Ramjattan posited, “that is the end of the matter.”
He noted however that the PAC is not allowed to venture outside of its remit which is to examine the Auditor General’s reports and posited that the actions by the government members were meant to only stall the process.
The motion to remove Patterson as the PAC Chairperson was put by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.
The government was seeking Patterson’s removal as head of the PAC following scathing reports in January of this year that he had 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.
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