Govt makes proposal for more efficient use of time, resources at PAC

…APNU welcomes plan, WIN shoots down plan prematurely

With the aim of clearing the backlog at the Public Accounts Meetings (PAC), the Government will be bringing a proposal that will see better utilisation of time and resources when it comes to the parliamentary scrutiny of public funds. This is according to Public Works Minister and Government’s representative in the PAC, Juan Edghill. He made these remarks on Friday during the handing over of the 2025 Auditor General (AG) Report to the Speaker of the National Assembly for

tabling in the House. The PAC is a bipartisan mechanism of the National Assembly that is responsible for scrutinising the audited accounts of the State, ensuring that public money is spent legally, efficiently and for authorised purposes. However, committee meetings over the years have been plagued with a myriad of issues that stalled its work, leading to a backlog of reports under examination. This year alone, the PAC was faced with frequent delays, boycotts and walkouts. But Edghill said that the Government has discussed this issue at length and came up with a solution to bring the backlog to the current year’s report.
“We intend to put forth a proposal of how we can get up to date… So, that when we get the next Auditor General’s Report of 2026 in 2027, we’ll be examining 2026,” he told the House Speaker and other Committee members on Friday. In the past, committee members from the parliamentary opposition have bemoaned the repeated delays of PAC meetings that have hindered the scrutiny of public spendings. Based on previous reports, the committee in the last parliament before the 2025 elections was only able to complete accountability checks up to the 2019 audit report, thus resulting now in a six-year backlog with the new report being handed over on Friday. According to Edghill, “We’ll be coming with a proposal of how we can make that backlog current. And I think that’s one of the important things that needs to be noted because we would like to ensure that the current accounting officers are sitting in the seat answering the questions. And we want to ensure that our country continues to live up to the standards that we’ve pledged to the people of Guyana when we told them to elect us to office – that we would provide transparency, accountability and good governance.” While he opted not to divulge into the details of the planned proposal and did not say whether consolidating the reports was included in Government’s proposal, Edghill, who served in previous bipartisan parliamentary committees both as a member and chairman, subsequently told reporters that the intention is to make better use of the resources. “The utilising of time and personnel more effectively is something that we’ve been discussing. We don’t want to have a REO (Regional Executive Officer) come in March with a full team from Region One to deal with 2020 or 2021. Then he has to come back in August to deal with [another year], and then come back again [another time]. It’s costly and not the best utilising of time,” he asserted.
The Minister ruled out having PAC meetings every day, but noted that having longer sessions could ensure that more work gets done. “The members on our team are prepared to work whenever we sit. So, it’s not how often we meet, it’s what we do when we meet. We’ve said that before,” he declared.

APNU welcomes plan
Meanwhile, committee member from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) opposition party, Ganesh Mahipaul, welcomed the Government’s proposed plan to clear the public accounts backlog. “We want the backlog to be cleared. We’ve been championing that for the longest while – that there is need for us to be with current affairs and the current Auditor General’s report so that we can provide the necessary guidance to the accounting officers,” he told reporters following the Minister’s announcement. According to Mahipaul, APNU has always championed the need to merge the reports from 2020 to 2023 in order to fast-track the work of the PAC – something which the current PAC Chairman, Vishnu Panday of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, says might not work when it comes to properly scrutinising those reports.

Premature
“I find it virtually impossible to combine all the reports…and to have the same efficiency, and to the larger extent, to fulfil the expectation of the general public in Guyana. I doubt whether that can happen, and I am very strong in my doubts,” Panday related to reporters on Friday. But even as he is not in full support of consolidation, the PAC Chairman says he will allow the proposal to be presented to the committee for consideration.