-in wake of over 40 meetings being cancelled because of
absence of gov’t MPs
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira yesterday defended the performance of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and argued that while government agencies are being reviewed and are guided by the Auditor General’s reports for the period under which the APNU+AFC was in office, attention must be paid to the number of violations committed.
In a press statement yesterday, the minister, who is a member of the PAC, stated that there were several violations of the Procurement Act, missing documents, and the refusal or non-cooperation of former Permanent Secretaries and Regional Executive Officers to appear before the committee when the David Granger government was in office.
Her response followed another round of complaints by the PAC Chairman, APNU+AFC’s Jermaine Figueira that over 40 meetings of the PAC have been cancelled because of the absence of government members. Teixeira did not directly address this yesterday.
According to Teixeira, some media houses, whom she chose not to name, have not shown interest in highlighting these issues though they have full access to the public hearings of these meetings.
“It is rather interesting that certain media houses weekly repeat the accusations of the Opposition members on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in regards to its meetings, without any attempt to verify whether the claims have merit,” the Government Chief Whip remarked in the press statement.
“Much liberty is given to conclusions accusing the Government members, but regrettably for the critics, the functioning of the PAC in the 12th Parliament has not been diminished in comparison to the 10th and 11th Parliaments, quorum or no quorum,” she continued.
“I had provided factual information at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance’s ‘2023 in Review’ press conference on January 10, 2024, and further spoke on this matter in Parliament, as did Minister (Juan) Edghill, providing comparative data on the number of sittings of the PAC and other committees during the 10th, 11th and 12th Parliaments. This information was ignored,” the Minister claimed.
Teixeira provided information on the meetings of the PAC over recent parliaments.
“The information provided is sourced directly from the records of the Public Accounts Committee,” she informed.
“One can easily observe from the matrix that the PAC of the 11th Parliament which worked for 40 months and held 58 meetings produced the most work under the then-opposition Chairperson, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, whereas the PAC in the 12th Parliament has had 61 meetings over 30 months,” Teixeira said. She misread her own information as under Ali only 44 meetings were held. The 58 meetings would have related to the period under the Ramotar presidency when Carl Greenidge was the chair of the PAC.
Teixeira alleged that during the 11th Parliament, the level of scandals and violations of the Procurement Act were pervasive, widespread, and commented on almost daily by some media houses.
“Therefore, the Government members on the PAC have no intention of rushing through these years as the Opposition members would like us to do this. Their objective is to go through these reports rapidly to detract public focus from what transpired during those years”, she asserted.
The Minister posited that it may seem presumptuous these days for her to suggest to the press how it should cover the sessions of the PAC. “The Auditor General reports, Special reports and performance reports which provide a wealth of information should inform journalists on the work of the PAC and its findings, including undeniable evidence of poor management, unaccounted expenditure, lack of transparency, and denial of services to the poor and vulnerable.”
She added, “These shortcomings, to be polite, were compounded by inadequate pharmaceutical and medical supplies to the regions, mismanagement of the school feeding programmes, and injustices meted out to the healthcare sector which, for example, suffered extensively from inadequate COVID-19 protective equipment and supplies during a global pandemic.”
According to the Minister, “The Opposition members in the PAC may want the public to forget these harsh realities that directly hurt the people of Guyana, and instead occupy the public’s attention with vacuous questions of whether the Government members and Ministers should sit on the PAC, or whether the members are attending the PAC meetings, and if the committee is meeting enough times.”
She also spoke of the issues being uncovered by the PAC. “These are mere distractions from the real issues being uncovered by the PAC. The fact is that the PAC today has met more often than during the 10th and 11th Parliaments and produced two (2) reports. During the 11th Parliament, within 44 meetings, three (3) reports were produced and the first Public Procurement Commission (PPC) was established under the leadership of Mohamed Irfaan Ali who was chair of the 11th Parliament’s PAC.”
“Further, the insinuations made by the APNU/AFC that Ministers of Government should not sit on the PAC is hypocritical and preposterous, as during the APNU+AFC’s tenure in Government during the 11th Parliament, two of their members on the PAC were sitting Ministers of Government. Those were Mrs Volda Lawrence and Mrs Valerie Patterson,” the minister’s statement read.
“The main issue, however, cannot be wished away – facts are facts, the APNU and AFC could not adequately manage the Government in their term of office and could not deliver to the people simply because corruption was rife and much to their dissatisfaction, the work of the PAC exposes this at each meeting,” she emphasised.
“I have no intention of resigning as a member of the PAC as l am very aware of the analysis and skills I bring to the meetings, regardless of how much wilful haste the Chair and Opposition exercise to rush through paragraphs at one time to hide the corruption which hallmarked the 2015-2020 period.
“It is the role of the PAC to offer to the National Assembly and truly to the people of Guyana, a critical analysis of public expenditure which includes revenues earned from tax-payers. As such, no efforts will be spared by the Government members of the PAC to review the accounts of every year, from 2015 to 2020 and beyond, as such haste from the opposition only proves to be a wilful disservice to all the people of Guyana,” the statement concluded.
Stabroek News yesterday received a notice stating that the scheduled PAC meeting on Monday, April 29th has also been cancelled.
The notice which was shared with this newspaper by Member of Parliament David Patterson, who is also a member of the PAC, stated, “In keeping with the decision made at the 59th Meeting of the PAC, to indicate the availability of Members for the Meeting, please be informed, that the Meeting of the Public Accounts Committee slated for Monday, 29th April, 2024, has been cancelled due to the unavailability of Members, as follows:
Gail Teixeira – Excused
Juan A. Edghill – Excused
Dharamkumar Seeraj – Excused
Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo – Excused
Sanjeev J. Datadin – Excused
Jermaine Figueira – Available
David A. Patterson – Available
Juretha V. Fernandes – Available
Ganesh A. Mahipaul – Available.
Earlier this week, Opposition MP and PAC member, Mahipaul, accused the government of deliberately cancelling last Monday’s sitting of the PAC because it is aware of the damning revelations contained in the 2020, 2021 and 2022 Auditor General’s Reports.
The APNU+AFC MP on April 22 related to Stabroek News that the committee will be concluding its examination of the 2019 Auditor General’s report and from there will transition into the scrutiny of 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.
According to Mahipaul, these reports have presented evidence of malfeasance, and corrupt practices by public officers as was highlighted by the Auditor General.
He opined that the government was afraid of what would be revealed at PAC meetings, so all attempts were being made to stymie or derail the scheduled sessions.
