Acknowledging the absence of former Permanent Secretaries (PS) and Regional Executive Officers (REO) from sittings of the Public Accounts Committee, government member Gail Teixeira on Monday said that the committee must consider what sort of action it must take to put a stop to the absenteeism.
The fact that former accounting officers have been failing to show up has been affecting progress in the review of the 2017 and 2018 Auditor General’s (AG) reports as current accounting officers are unable to provide the detailed answers during scrutiny of the report. According to Teixeira, it is unfair for the current accounting officers to be bombarded with questions on matters they are not familiar with.
“It is very unfair to the present officers who have to answer for the tenure of another person. I would like to have a talk on that issue to consider how we will deal with it internally in the PAC.”
As such, she has asked the Chairman of the Committee, Jermaine Figueira, to set aside time for this matter to be discussed.
In several instances, accounting teams when presenting themselves before the PAC body, would inform that the former PSs and REOs were not present. It is often related that they are unable to establish contact with the individuals or that the individual is out of the jurisdiction making it impossible for them to appear before the committee. In some cases, former accounting officers when subjecting themselves to questioning, claimed they suffer from “memory loss” as they would respond to questions by saying they cannot remember.
Opposition member, Ganesh Mahipaul, supported the concern and pointed out that if the work of the PAC is speeded up, the committee will be in position to be current with the AG’s report, giving it a better chance of having officers being held accountable. The PAC is currently three years behind on its scrutiny of public spending.
Even with the absence of the accounting heads, Mahipaul contended that staff members working below the accounting officers should be in a position to provide necessary answers and documentation to the PAC.
Teixeira, however rebutted that the issue does not cater for support staff providing the answers, as the Financial Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) does not regard them as the accounting officers. She advised that for the body to accept answers from junior staff, there will have to be amendments to the law.
She further explained that once a person accepts the
position as head of a budget agency and is regarded as the accounting officer, he or she must present themselves before the PAC whenever required as stated in law.
Fellow PAC member, Juan Edghill, concurred with Teixeira and noted that while supporting officers or staff such as technical officers, accountants, programme managers, and engineers, are required to be accountable, they are not defined as accounting officers according to the law.
“… The buck stops with these Accounting Officers who are overseeing the agencies. Whether it is a PS or REO, they have the power to sanction those supporting staff who do not follow the rules. It is becoming more obvious why some of these things happened and documents are not available… we are here asking the wrong people,” Edghill declared.
