THE statutory meetings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will continue to be hosted once weekly, owing to the successful passage of a motion by government member and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.

The motion passed in the PAC on Monday, essentially rescinds an attempt by the Opposition’s Ganesh Mahipaul to increase the statutory meetings from once to twice weekly.

Shortly after the motion was debated and voted on behind closed doors, a disappointed PAC Chairman Jermaine Figueira exited the chambers to brief reporters who were waiting outside.

He said that even though the Opposition PAC members believe that having two weekly meetings are important to clear the backlog of cases dating back to 2016, it was argued that this would be a burden on constitutional offices such as the Audit Office, which also has to participate in the proceedings.

Figueira told reporters that he will continue to examine ways in which the work of the PAC can be fast-tracked.

Meanwhile, Minister Teixeira said that even though the PAC would have liked to have its work be brought up to date as soon as possible, the operations of the PAC go far beyond the meetings, and also require the review of performance records and the preparation of reports for the National Assembly, among other things.

“[We] still have a report on Parliament’s agenda that dates back to 2018,” Teixeira shared.

She noted too that examining the Auditor General’s 2016-2020 reports have been “no walk in the park”, since they are “stacked with paragraphs after paragraphs” of breaches occurring under the previous A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government.

She is of the view that the now APNU+AFC opposition wants to “jump” the review of their tenure and “get to 2020 where they believe terrible things happened” under the Dr. Irfaan Ali-led administration, which assumed office in August 2020.

Teixeira believes firmly that the once-weekly PAC meetings, which was a norm dating back to the 1960s, need not be changed.

Notwithstanding the passage of the motion, Teixeira said that the bipartisan committee remains open to convening more than one PAC meetings, should the need arise.

“What has worked from 1966 to now can continue to work and [we] can meet in special cases,” Teixeira asserted.

She referred to the fact that when President Ali, as a Member of Parliament, was Chairman of the PAC, a “special occasion” resulted in the committee meeting several days in a row.

NEW PARLIAMENTARY CLERK
Nonetheless, in addition to the disagreements on the frequency of meetings, the PAC’s work was also stalled due to the refusal of the parliamentary clerk who, along with other staff, complained of the “unprofessional conduct” of PAC members.

Due to high stress levels caused by PAC’s work, the clerk was even forced to seek medical attention.
Eventually, another Parliamentary Clerk stepped up and agreed to ‘clerk’ the PAC.

Responding to the situation on Monday, the PAC Chairman said that the new clerk has committed to executing her role in the PAC and will have the full support of the committee.

Figueira also used the opportunity to thank the previous clerk for doing an exceptional job during her tenure.
“Its unfortunate what would’ve transpired with her,” Figueira noted.

Asked about the reports of unprofessional conduct of members of the PAC, Figueira was keen to disagree with the views of the Parliament staff.

“You have to understand that the PAC is housed with members of government and opposition who have different views. This is Parliament; you have debates, and at times the debates are robust and can be loud, but to say that it is unprofessional, I beg to disagree,” Figueira said.

Going forward, however, the PAC Chairman said that he did caution the committee members to be “less tempered in their tone.”