PAC eyes weekly meetings says designated Chairman MP Patterson
While the Public Accounts Committee is yet to meet, when it finally does, it is scheduled to meet every Monday. This is according to Member of Parliament and designated chairman David Patterson, “despite several attempts, we are still to be informed as to the date of the first meeting,” Patterson said via his Facebook page, “the APNU+AFC members have all indicated to the parliament that we stand available, even at short notice to attend any meeting,” the member of parliament concluded.
Patterson is tipped to be the Chairman of the Committee and a member from the main opposition party as per Parliament’s Standing Orders. The Committee met under the last parliament some 18 months ago, in August 2018 under the chairmanship of now President Irfaan Ali. Patterson estimated that the PAC met some 44 out of 202 times during the life of the last parliament, a mere, “22%” Patterson said.
During some of the last meetings, it was examining the reports from several RDCs under the then Ministry of Communities, “As of that date, PAC only examined up to 2016 accounts,” Patterson explained, ” which means that the work of the committee is almost four years behind.” He said. Among the list of agencies still to provide details on their 2016 are the Ministry of the Presidency, Office of the Prime Minister and several ministries including Natural Resources, Legal Affairs and several others.
Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Issacs in an interview on Monday confirmed some work still needs to be done to properly convene some of the committee, “the chairpersons are still to be elected, I am told that the day before the next sitting, all the committees would be convened to elect the chairpersons,” Issacs said.
Once this PAC is convened, it will have to, among other things, nominate members of the Public Procurement Commission as part of its first set of business.
