Opposition hopes for greater PAC scrutiny of Government spending in new parliament

Sep 26, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member and former Member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Ganesh Mahipaul is hoping that the Government will change its approach and allow PAC to better scrutinise public spending.

This is despite, the ruling People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C) party securing a greater majority in the parliament.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the handing over of the Auditor General report for the year 2024, on Thursday, the opposition member candidly spoke of how the government’s decision limited the work of the PAC in last parliament. Mahipaul said that the work of parliamentary committee was severely affected.

Mahipaul explained that there were numerous cancellations of the meetings due to the lack of a quorum. According the APNU member, the cancellations have severely affected the committee’s ability to do its work of examining the spending between 2020 and 2025. “I am personally not satisfied with the work because what happened when the government’s side moved to change the quorum requirement and as we had predicted caused us to see limited meetings of the Public Accounts Committee. We did say when we had that debate that the government is looking to reduce the time that the public accounts committee meets. We were meeting once every week previously…and then we started meeting once a month and on some occasions we didn’t even meet until after three months,”

As a result, Mahipaul said the last Public Accounts Committee stopped at 2019, when it should have been able to scrutinise more reports. “…We have not examined any accounts of the government in the last parliament the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 and now we have this 2024 report coming to parliament. No expenditure of the last government was done by the Public Accounts Committee, so, I am not comfortable with the work that was done by the last PAC,” Mahipaul said.

He noted that while (PPP/C) secured a larger majority in the new Parliament, he is still hopeful that the work of the PAC would not be hampered by cancellations.

“I would like to see in the next parliament more regular meetings. I would like to see for example the Auditor General report. I would like to see a greater in depth audit on the accounts. The auditor general only audits about 10 percent of an agency’s expenditure I know that in the last parliament, the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton and his team wrote to the Auditor General requesting audits be conducted on certain projects which include the Government’s Complex, which is being constructed at the Haags Bosch Landfill site to the tune of $15.8B, and we know that over $8B plus has already been spent and we have not seen value for that money. That was one project we requested of the Auditor General to examine in detail. I trust he did in this repoort We also did ask about the Belle Vue Pump Station and several other pump stations…the cash grant distributions,” Mahipaul said.

He told the press that he also wants to see greater scrutiny at the level of the constitutional agencies.  Mahipaul noted that “The Public Accounts Committee, the Parliament Building expenditure, the Judiciary, The Audit Office, the Teaching Service Commission. You name the constitutional agencies none of them appeared before the PAC for their spending to be scrutinised.

He continued, “The Guyana Water Incorporated, the Central Housing and Planning Authority the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission: you have several of these entities are dealing with billions of dollars, and their accounts are audited, their reports are submitted to the National Assembly but it is not reaching the Public Accounts Committee. I want to see them come to the Public Accounts Committee, those reports, and I want the Public Accounts Committee bring those officers before the PAC for them to answer to their expenditure because they are findings in those reports that are equally questionable as those that are reflected in the various ministries.”

Former PAC Member, Juretha Fernandes, said that the public can look forward to the PAC examining the spending of the rulings party.

“We completed 2019 and we are in the year 2020 so definitely we are going to be looking their spending.”  The APNU member called for the Reports of the Auditor General on the Accounts of the Government to be made public once handed over to the National Assembly. Fernandes said. “We just witnessed the handing over of the Auditor General’s Report, however, it is not deemed laid until it is presented to the National Assembly. We have made recommendations in the past that when the document is handed over here, that it is deemed laid, that is something that we believe is necessary so that the public, the media would have that document to be able to scrutinize it.”

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• APNU, Ganesh Mahipaul, Government spending, Juretha Fernandes, scrutiny

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