Three scheduled sittings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament have been cancelled in recent months as a result of absences by the government side in the aftermath of a quorum change in April this year.
Of the three cancelled meetings, the first was scheduled in May while the latter two were scheduled in July.
PAC Chairman, Jermaine Figueira on Wednesday said that the non-attendance of government members is testimony to arguments by opposition MPs when the quorum-change motion was debated in the National Assembly.
The work of the PAC, he contended, continues to be stymied by members of government, who are fully aware of the backlog in the committee.
“It is disappointing that this is the route they are taking. We have a backlog and now we are being handicapped by this situation. The Guyanese people need to know how monies were spent and what it was spent on,” the PAC Chairman stated.
The Chairman reminded that opposition MPs had argued for ministers not to hold seats on the committee as their unavailability because of official functions hinders the pace of the work.
In relation to the July 11 meeting, Government members, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill, Dr Vishwa Mahadeo and Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira were at the opening of the National Toshaos’ Conference.
Teixeira said she sent an excuse to members informing them of her unavailability at around 1 am on Monday.
At the May 23 meeting, she posited that the non-attendance of government members was not a deliberate act and that their absences were due to national emergencies and members being ill.
Before the quorum for the meeting was changed, opposition members had contended that the government members would use it to stymie the work of the PAC.
Prior to the change of the quorum, the meeting required three persons, irrespective of which side of the House they were from. The quorum is now two from each side of the House plus the Chairman.
Teixeira in defending her tabling of the motion had said the amendment of the quorum for the PAC is one that offers protection to both sides of the National Assembly.
In debating the motion in the National Assembly, she had argued that the 2-2-1 formula provides for greater participation in scrutiny of the Auditor General’s reports and secures representation of both sides. She pointed out that on two occasions while the government side of the House was absent, the opposition made decisions without their input.
“The PAC role and function is to make sure that we are able to scrutinise the accounts and to be able to have consensus in the decisions it makes for its report to go forward,” she said as she advanced her argument on the need for amendment for the quorum.
The motion was passed in April. Thirty-four members, including Liberty and Justice Party MP, Lenox Shuman, voted for the amendment while 29 members of APNU+AFC voted against it. Two of their members were absent during the vote.
Simultaneous review
This newspaper understands that the committee was last week Monday expected to commence the review of the 2019 and 2020 audit reports.
Figueira in a written response to Teixeira two Sundays ago had shot down her request for the reports to be scrutinised separately. In the letter seen by this newspaper, Teixeira said members of the government had expressed views against the move to look at both reports simultaneously.
Teixeira in correspondence to Figueira argued that 2019 and 2020 constitute a period when the David Granger-led administration was functioning as a caretaker government and expenditure should be carefully scrutinized. A motion of no confidence had been passed against the Granger administration in December of 2018.
Despite the then APNU+AFC government being a caretaker, the 2019 budget was executed without any oversight.
She went on to state that for 2020 there were no budget allocations or an appropriation act approved by the National Assembly for nine months.
“Therefore, monies were being withdrawn and spent without the authority of parliament or oversight as required by the statutes,” she contended.
It is on these grounds she made the argument that this period requires much greater scrutiny and time.
“It cannot be combined as has been done previously on some occasions by the PAC,” she said.
Responding to these concerns, Figueira in correspondence to Teixeira said the PAC does not concern itself with the reasons she has provided.
“The Public Accounts Committee, Madam Teixeira, deals primarily with the Auditor General’s report findings. Reports which have already been submitted to the committee for the said years to be interrogated with the greatest degree of scrutiny,” he underscored.
He went on to state that her identification of the years 2019 and 2020 as years that require much greater scrutiny and time, “suggest insultingly that the work done by the previous and present members, including yourself, on the years concluded, were not given such a degree of scrutiny and time that you now in a dictatorial fashion demand for these particular years to be treated differently”.
