— Ministry of Communities requests suspension for regions to be better prepared

THE Ministry of Communities has asked the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to suspend examination of the 2016 Auditor General’s Report so that the remaining Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) could be better prepared to respond to questions put to them.
Although several regions have already been examined, the ministry believes that the performance by the regions before the PAC was unsatisfactory.

“While the ministry is desirous of seeing this process through expeditiously, we are constrained to take this course of action due to the recent unsatisfactory level of performance before the PAC… this time will be used to have regional officials better prepare to assist the PAC in carrying out its mandate,” said the ministry in a recent press statement.

Examination of the report has been going on since last year. On several occasions, accounting officers and their teams from various regions have been sent away by the PAC.
At the most recent PAC meeting, regional officers of the RDC of Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) were sent away because they failed to adequately respond to questions put to them.

In addition, Regions One (Barima-Waini) and Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) were also sent away for similar reasons.

Member of the PAC, Juan Edghill in a letter to the editor, said the regional executive officers (REOs) and huge delegations have attended meetings of the PAC to give an account for their stewardship and to answer queries raised by the AG in his report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2016.

“It is not a secret to the public that some of these officers have been found to have violated the Procurement Act, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA), stores regulations and even policies set by the Granger administration,” he said.