Scrutiny of Coalition spending will not be rushed

Scrutiny of Coalition spending will not be rushed – says AG

Nov 04, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, on Tuesday night stated, that the scrutiny from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the spending of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition will not be rushed.

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.

The AG made that comment on his weekly programme called ‘Issues in the News,’ while explaining the work of the PAC and the current issues coming out of the committee.
Recently, the government used its majority in the PAC to have the body meet once per week instead of twice weekly, as suggested by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) and PAC Chairman Jermaine Figueira.
In light of this, the AG said on his programme, “The work of the PAC is significant… it is for that reason that this work of this committee cannot be rushed.”
According to him, the committee is presently scrutinising the spending of the former administration. He noted that he believes that because the Opposition does not want the committee to examine their spending, they are pushing for the process to be done in a, “quick and careless way.”
However, he noted that the Government will not sit back and allow that to happen. In fact, he said: “we will not sit idly by and allow the work of this committee to become a rubberstamp, nor will we allow the work to be rushed.”
Nandlall also outlined that the work of the committee must be carefully done, with circumspection, with diligence and with the requisite care – since it cannot be something that is rushed. Minister Nandlall noted that the work of that committee is very important and crucial for a democratic and transparent architecture to exist.
To this end, he added that these are concepts and precepts that we are all committed to in Guyana. “Irrespective, whether you are a member of civil society or whether you are a member of whichever political party, you are committed to see transparent government, you are committed to ensure that there is accountability for the expenditure of public funds,” the AG said. Kaieteur News had reported that there is currently a five-year backlog of public spending still to be scrutinised. Recently, coming out of the PAC is that the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development has no trace of the $1.8B settlement paid to BK Contracting firm following a row it had with the government for missing targets at the Haags Bosch landfill development project.

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