The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament was yesterday forced to abort another meeting after three government members tendered excuses and two did not show up.
This is the ninth PAC meeting to be aborted under similar circumstances since a quorum change. The other PAC meeting cancellations occurred on May 23rd, 2022 [mere weeks after a change to the previous quorum was adopted], while the other cancellations were on July 11, 18 and 25, November 21 and 28th, December 12th 2022, and February 6th 2023.
The Chairman of the PAC, Jermaine Figueira, has reiterated APNU+AFC’s opposition to the present quorum.
“It is important that we are allowed to do our work in the interest of transparency and accountability,” Figueira told Stabroek News yesterday. He added that the non-holding of meetings delays their work, which he described as unfair as the PAC has an obligation to report to the National Assembly. A suggestion first made by current government lead member, Gail Teixeira, when in opposition, that ministers of government not sit on the PAC because of their heavy workload and commitments has resurfaced.
“It has been our suggestion that ministers not sit on the PAC. When Ms. [Gail] Teixeira was out of government she made the same suggestion but now the tables have turned and she is lead member of the government on the committee,” he stated.
In relation to two of the aborted meetings, on July 11 Government members, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo and Teixeira, were at the opening of the National Toshaos’ Conference. Teixeira said she had sent an excuse to members informing them of her unavailability at around 1 am on Monday. Regarding the aborted May 23 meeting, Teixeira said 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 change of quorum, a meeting required three members irrespective of which side of the House they were from. Opposition members, then, had argued in defence of the three-member quorum saying that if it was changed government members would use the new formula to stymie the work of the PAC. The new quorum that guides the current PAC requires five members, two from either side of the House plus the Chairman.
Teixeira, when defending her tabling of the motion to change the quorum, had said that the amendment of the quorum for the PAC offered protection to both sides of the National Assembly. She argued that the 2-2-1 formula provides for greater participation when scrutinising 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’s 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 of the quorum. The motion was passed in April 2022. 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.
The committee is currently reviewing, simultaneously, the audited reports of 2017, 2018 and 2019 and both sides have clashed on this approach. The Opposition has argued that this approach was intended to clear a backlog [of reports] while the government countered that the opposition was avoiding scrutiny of their term in office. Teixeira, in a correspondence to Figueira last year, had argued that 2019 and 2020 constituted a period when the [David] Granger-led administration functioned as a caretaker government and that period’s expenditures ought to be prioritised. A motion of no confidence had been passed against the Granger administration in December of 2018. Despite the then APNU+AFC government being in caretaker mode, the 2019 budget was executed without any oversight. Teixeira went on to state that for 2020 there were no budget allocations nor was an appropriation act approved by the National Assembly for nine months. It is on these grounds she made the argument that this period requires much greater scrutiny and time.
Figueira, in response, had said “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 [their] monies were spent and what it was spent on.” Stabroek News made efforts to solicit a comment yesterday from Teixeira and fellow government member, Juan Edghill, but calls and messages went unanswered.
