Latest update April 9th, 2025 12:59 AM
Absent Govt. MPs stalls work of PAC
Kaieteur News – The work of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has faced cancellation for two consecutive weeks owing to the absence of Members of Parliament from the government.
This was revealed on Monday by Chairperson of the PAC Jermaine Figueira as he explained that the meeting was stalled after all of the government members of the PAC were absent from the meeting. Figueira explained that the absence has resulted in a lack of a quorum. He said that the government had amended the PAC quorum to provide for five members– two members represent government, two represent the opposition and as well as the Chairman.
PAC Chair, Jermaine Figueira
The PAC chairman said that the government members did not show up to the meeting because they wanted to stymie the progress of the committee. He explained that as previously announced the meeting was scheduled for the committee to commence examination of the consolidated Auditor General reports for the years 2019 and 2020. “This is something that the government is in fierce opposition to and so I believe that they would use this tactic to stop the meeting from going forward which just gives credence to what I was saying about their move to change the makeup of the quorum…” Figueira added.
He stressed that Monday was the second consecutive meeting to be cancelled because of the lack of quorum. While the Government side of the PAC continues to object to the combined examination of the 2019-2020 audit reports, Figueira has been insisting that it is necessary for the committee to clear the backlog of its work.
The issue was raised last week and documented in correspondence between the PAC Chair and Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira. The government had previously objected to the combined examination of the audit report emanating from the APNU+AFC term in office.
Teixeira, a member of the committee wrote to the PAC chair outlining the reasons why the reports should be examined separately. In the letter, Teixeira noted among other things, that for the period of nine months in 2019 when the APNU+AFC held office, there was no budget allocation or appropriation act approved by the National Assembly.
Therefore, she contended that monies were being withdrawn from the public coffers without the authority of the parliament or oversight as required by statutes. The years, 2019 and 2020, Teixeira said were aberrations and not in accordance with the constitution and statutory requirements regarding expenditure from the public purse.
As a result, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister noted that the reports from the two years require proper scrutiny and therefore should not be examined together. She called on the PAC to halt any preparations to hold a combined examination of the two reports together and to proceed to examine them separately and sequentially.
However, Figueira insists that the government’s position on the issue is unfounded. He wrote to the Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, stating that the reasons posited for the government’s side, as to why the merging of the years 2019 and 2020 should be halted are immaterial to the business and concerns of the Public Accounts Committee.
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