‘No hurry to clear up public spending’

Nov 03, 2021 News

…passes motion for PAC to meet once per week

Kaieteur News – Despite a five-year backlog of still to be scrutinised public spending, government used its majority in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday to have the body meet once per week instead of twice weekly to deal with the issue.

The Parliamentary PAC is back to once per week meeting.

A motion presented by Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira succeeded on Monday despite objections made by PAC Chairman Jermaine Figueira. Citizens have argued for the speeding up of scrutiny of public spending by the bipartisan parliamentary committee, but the administration said its ministers and other departmental heads who sit on the body are too busy with their government jobs to meet twice weekly. Speaking with the Kaieteur News on the issue, Figueira expressed disappointment at the decision to reverse a motion which was tabled by A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament, (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul to extend the hearings of the PAC to twice a week.
Mahipaul who is also a member of the PAC had moved a motion to have the PAC meetings twice weekly to clear a five-year backlog of work that is before the committee. Mahipaul had noted that PAC was still examining financial records and discussing issues related to financial irregularities outlined in the Auditor General’s reports since 2016.
He explained that for the records to be properly scrutinised, the committee would have to commit to meet more often (twice weekly) and regularly to clear the backlog. The opposition MP was among those who raised objections to Teixeira‘s motion on Monday. The PAC chairman said that the reasons and contentions of the opposition members at the PAC were completely ignored. He added: “The PAC decision was made despite, the many reasons I articulated as to why the meetings should be held twice per week.”
“I am disappointed, we even made suggestions and proposed that the meetings can be held twice in one week only two times in a month just to ensure that we stay on top of the work to clear the backlog but they completely ignored the proposals.”
Nonetheless, Figueira said that as Chairman of the PAC, he will endeavour to ensure that on the days that the committee will meet, it will go as late as possible to cover the reports. Last Monday’s meeting dragged on for hours and ended at around 9:00pm.
The PAC had been meeting twice weekly to examine records of the Auditor General Reports dating back to 2016. The reports had piled up after the PAC failed to meet on several occasions over the five-year period. The decision to roll back the meetings was taken after Teixeira‘s presented her second motion on the issue. Teixeira’s previous motion to reduce the PAC meetings from twice weekly to just once per week was shut down by Figueira.
The Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs had explained that while meetings with the PAC are important, the twice weekly discussions of the PAC only places undue pressure on the members of the Government, the audit team, and other constitutional agencies, which have other responsibilities to carry out. She claimed it was difficult for representatives from these agencies, who are required to be at PAC meetings twice per week.
Teixeira had opined that “the opposition MPs are not working, so they can meet five days a week, but not the rest of us; we don’t have a lot of free time on our hands.”

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