The next meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament will be held on Monday, after unsuccessful attempts by the government and opposition members to meet this week.
Chairman of the PAC Carl Greenidge said that he was unavailable for the meeting and said that it had to be shifted.
The meeting was initially rescheduled to Tuesday but members of the PPP/C said that it would have been inconvenient for them. Greenidge also said that the AFC needs to be present at meetings, a jab at the recent meeting where AFC member Trevor Williams was unable to get to the meeting on time. The PPP/C members used Williams’ absence and an incorrect reading of the committee rules to carry a vote in favour of a number of appointments at the Audit Office. There was no meeting of the PAC last week owing to a public holiday.
Speaking to the Stabroek News, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said that Williams turned up for Monday’s meeting and noted that the AFC was comfortable had the meeting been confirmed for Tuesday.
However, Ramjattan said that the party will be ready for the meeting next Monday, where the party will seek to reverse the decision by the Auditor General to appoint a number of persons at the Audit Office, including Gitanjali Singh, the wife of Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh.
In a recent press statement, AFC said that it was disturbed at the manner in which the PAC approved the appointment of Directors of the Audit Office.
The AFC said such a matter, with constitutional and ethical implications, ought not to have been the subject of a PAC vote “as engineered by the PPP representative” in the absence of the full committee of the PAC. The AFC called the move tantamount to a sleight of hand “especially in the context of the previous meeting when the AFC member asked for an adjournment to be given time for the committee to be better advised.”
The promotion of Mrs Singh, in particular, has generated criticism, stemming from concern over her facing a conflict of interest in the performance of her duties.
