-sees it as ‘one of the most serious attacks on parliamentary accountability’
APNU yesterday accused the government of deliberately undermining the work of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by failing to attend its meetings and renewed calls for changes to the committee’s quorum requirements, following another aborted sitting earlier this week.
In a statement issued yesterday, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) said the continued inability of the PAC to meet represented “one of the most serious attacks on parliamentary accountability” and urged citizens to demand that the committee be allowed to carry out its oversight responsibilities.
The statement came after PAC Chairman Vishnu Panday said a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, the fifth in a row, had to be cancelled after government members again failed to confirm their attendance, preventing the committee from having a quorum. Panday has said the committee is now six years behind in examining the Auditor General’s reports.
APNU argued that the current impasse stems from amendments to the Standing Orders approved by the PPP/C government in April 2022, which altered the quorum requirements for the PAC.
According to the coalition, before the amendment, three members, including the chairperson, constituted a quorum unless otherwise directed by the National Assembly. It said the revised Standing Order now requires the presence of five members, including two government members, two opposition members and the chairperson.
The coalition contended that the change allows government members to prevent meetings from proceeding simply by not attending.
“As a result, the government spending for 2020 to 2024 has not yet been examined,” the statement said, adding that the committee’s chairman had made repeated efforts to convene meetings but government members advised they were unavailable, forcing the sittings to be cancelled.
The coalition said the PAC plays a central role in Parliament’s oversight of public expenditure by examining the audited public accounts presented by the Auditor General, reviewing the use of public funds and exercising oversight of the Auditor General’s work.
It said that public accounts committees in Commonwealth parliamentary democracies are intended to function independently of government control and said this principle had been weakened in Guyana by the changes to the quorum requirements.
The opposition also reminded the government that public funds belong to the people of Guyana and said every public project is financed by taxpayers and the country’s natural resources.
“A government confident in its management of public funds should welcome scrutiny. A government committed to democracy should attend PAC meetings,” APNU said.
The coalition called for the immediate resumption of regular PAC meetings, full attendance by government members at properly convened sittings, an accelerated timetable to address the backlog in examining the Auditor General’s reports, and reform of the quorum rules to prevent either side from using non-attendance to frustrate the committee’s work.
It also appealed to citizens, civil society organisations, trade unions, faith leaders, professional bodies, private sector organisations and youth groups to press for the PAC to resume its work, saying the issue transcends party politics and concerns the public’s right to know how taxpayers’ money is being spent.
Panday, who was named PAC chairman last month, on Wednesday evening told Kiskadee Watch that no positive response had been received from the government side regarding a meeting scheduled for that day and that the sitting had now been postponed until Monday.
“It is unacceptable that the members from the government side did not see it fit to give the public satisfaction that work is going on with the PAC, and this is a major cause of concern for me,” Panday had said.
The chairman had said too that he viewed the continued failure to convene meetings as “yet another attempt to delay or frustrate the function of the Public Accounts Committee.”
“At this stage, I am convinced that there is definitely no concern for the work of the committee or a strategy to delay the progress of the Public Accounts Committee function,” he added.
Panday expressed concern that the committee remains six years behind in its examination of the Auditor General’s reports.
“The backlog of work is now six years behind. This is unacceptable,” he said.
He disclosed that notices have been issued for another meeting on Monday but warned that if government members again fail to attend, the opposition will consider its next move.
“If the results are the same, then we will have a meeting with our party leadership to determine the way forward,” he said.
Government Chief Whip and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira has not publicly responded to the opposition’s latest allegations. Previous questions sent to her office by Kiskadee Watch on the matter remained unanswered.
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