Gail Teixeira writes PAC Chair to halt combined scrutiny of 2019, 2020 Audit Reports

…says greater scrutiny, time needed for 2 years of APNU/AFC’s caretaker governance

Government Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira is calling on the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC)-chaired parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to halt the combined examination of the Annual Audit Reports for the years 2019 and 2020 – a period during which the coalition was operating a caretaker Government.

Now, as chair of the PAC, the APNU/AFC Opposition, through Chairman Jermaine Figueira, is moving to consolidate and rush through the financial records of the party’s controversial last years in office.
Teixeira, who is also the Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister, wrote the PAC Chairman and members of the committee Friday last, indicating her objection to the move.
“…these two years require much greater scrutiny and time and therefore cannot be combined as has been done previously on some occasions by the PAC.”
“I, on behalf of the Government members of the PAC, am calling on you as Chairperson to halt any preparations to commence the examination of the combined Annual Audit Reports of 2019 and 2020 and, further, to allow the examination of Annual Audit Reports of 2019 and of 2020 to be examined separately and sequentially in the PAC,” Minister Teixeira detailed in the correspondence.
The Committee is slated to meet today to commence scrutiny of the audit reports for these two years.

But the Chief Whip argued, on behalf of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, several points as to why the two years cannot and must not be combined. She reminded that after the December 21, 2018 passage of the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against the then Administration, the coalition regime was a “caretaker or interim” Government as determined by Guyana’s apex court, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in its June 2019 ruling that ascertained the successful passage of the motion.
Minister Teixeira went on to outline also that the APNU/AFC Government was in breach of the Guyana Constitution, which requires elections to be called within three months after the successful passage of the No-Confidence Motion.
“Despite the ruling of the CCJ in July 2019 that elections must be held within three months following this ruling (having been paused due to a series of litigation), elections were not held until March 2, 2020. In this period, the 2019 budget was executed with no oversight and scrutiny. Parliament was meeting in breach of the Constitution between January and May 2019,” she posited.
The Minister further stated, “There was no budget allocations or appropriation act approved by the National Assembly for the first nine months of the year of 2020. Therefore, monies were being withdrawn and spent without the authority of Parliament or oversight as required by the statutes.”

Aberrations
Against this backdrop, Teixeira contended that the years, 2019 and 2020, were “aberrations and not in accordance with the Constitution and statutory requirements” regarding expenditures from the public purse.
On December 21, 2018, a No-Confidence Motion brought by the then PPP/C Opposition was successfully passed in the National Assembly after one of the one seat-majority coalition parliamentarians took a “conscious vote” and supported the motion.
The coalition’s failure to uphold the constitutional requirements triggered a number of legal challenges in the courts in Guyana, which ultimately led to two days of hearings at the CCJ in May 2019. The regional court validated the passage of the NCM and said Article 106 (6) and (7) of the Constitution was activated, that is, elections, which were already long-due at that time, be held within the next three months.
But the David Granger-led regime employed a series of delay tactics and elections were not held until March 2, 2020. However, even after its defeat at the polls, the coalition refused to demit office and held the country at ransom for five months.
With mounting international and local pressure, a national recount was eventually held and confirmed the PPP/C’s victory by over 15,000 votes. Irfaan Ali was eventually sworn-in as Guyana’s Ninth Executive President on August 2, 2020.

Corrupt deals and wanton spending
Shortly after taking office, the PPP/C Administration disclosed that the coalition’s mismanagement of the local economy left the nation’s coffers severely depleted. The Ali Administration subsequently disclosed acts of corrupt practices and wanton spending by the APNU/AFC during its waning days in office.
These included hundreds of millions of dollars being withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund for capital projects without any parliamentary oversight. Among such project was the controversial $1 billion Ocean View Hotel rehabilitation – a facility which the PPP/C had to take possession of and transform into a COVID-19 hospital.
It was also found that mega-salaries were being paid to a number of political appointees. Additionally, one of the most egregious bombshell revelations made by the PPP/C was the massive land giveaways by the coalition, where large tracts of prime State lands were frantically distributed to known associates of the party as well as to legitimate businesses, in some cases, unbeknownst to them.
About five companies that were vested lands by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) have since returned those to the State, in a bid for a more transparent process. Some of these land giveaways occurred mere days before the 2020 elections, and during the controversial period after the March 2 polls.
Today, the PAC, which is tasked with scrutinising Government spending, is set to commence examination of these and other spendings of the APNU/AFC regime while in caretaker mode in 2019 and 2020.
The PAC is made up of nine members; five from Government and four from the Opposition. (G8)