No special rules needed for Public Accounts Committee to meet – Finance Minister

The inactivity of the Public Accounts Committee became a political football in the House of Assembly last week, with Parliamentarians each blaming the other side for the Committee not having functioned for over two decades.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is responsible for examining how the government spends money on projects and programmes and can make recommendations to the Government on improving its operations. The bone of contention during the Thursday, November 23 sitting was whether the PAC required specially approved rules to function.

The issue came to light during the debate on Supplementary Estimates 2023, laid by Finance Minister, Camillo Gonsalves, for approval to spend an additional $74 million on the Modern Port in Kingstown as well as monies spent by way of Special Warrant for “urgent expenditure that took place in recent years”.

During his contribution to the debate, Opposition Leader, Dr Godwin Friday highlighted the lack of supplementary estimates for special warrants between 2014 and 2019, noting that “accountability is needed” on all matters to deal with government finances.

Tickled by the suggestion on the lack of transparency, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves responded by highlighting that all decisions are made in line with the Finance Administration Act which was “revised, reformed and strengthened” for all matters elated to the finance administration.

“On the day that this matter was being debated, the Opposition was absent from Parliament …This government has been asking repeatedly for the Leader of the Opposition to summon the Public Accounts Committee where he is Chairman and in 22 years and 7 months they have never once summoned.”

The House dissolved into a shouting match with the Opposition Leader accusing the Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration of intentionally preventing the functioning of the PAC while the PM fired back, accusing Dr Friday of neglecting “his constitutional responsibility”.

Without approved rules, Dr Friday noted, the PAC could not become functional. His sentiments were backed by Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown, St Clair Leacock who disclosed: “I recall distinctly that former minister [Julian] Francis and [Douglas] Slater who were in attendance at the meeting made it manifestly clear that there were no rules to guide the calling and functioning of public accounts [committee] and they will not participate in that meeting. I have subsequently in this Parliament on repeated occasions to former Speaker of the House Jomo Thomas called for the rules to be put into place by this regime so the Public Accounts Committee can meet. In 23 years, they have failed to put in place the mechanisms to facilitate the Public Accounts Committee meetings.”

However, following an inquiry by the House Speaker, Rochelle Forde, the Finance Minister pointed out that specially approved rules are not required for the PAC to function.

“The same standing orders that apply to all committees should apply to the public accounts committee … unless particular exceptions are made,” Minister Gonsalves said reading from the document The International Budget Partnership on Best Practices for Public Accounts Committee.

“It is not any special set of rules. The red herring here is that it was thwarted for a lack of rules.”