No reduction in PAC meetings – Teixeira

…says Opposition’s calls for weekly meeting “not always possible”

Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira has stated that the Opposition’s calls for weekly meetings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were not always possible owing to the busy schedules of the Ministers.
She pointed out during her Ministry’s closing press conference on Wednesday, that the 10th and 11th Parliaments, comparatively, had less PAC meetings than the current parliament.
In current 12th Parliament, under the Dr Irfaan Ali presidency, there have already been 59 PAC sittings to date.
Under the Donald Ramotar presidency in the 10th Parliament, some 57 meetings of the PAC were held between March 16, 2012, and November 3, 2014 – a period of 32 months. By comparison, the records show that in the 11th Parliament between September 9, 2015, and August 6, 2018 (40 months) just 44 meetings were held under the former David Granger-led A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change Government.
Despite this, however, there has been a push by the APNU/AFC Opposition for the PAC to meet more regularly – something which Minister Teixeira said was not possible.

“The fact is that the PAC, generally in most countries, meet once a month, but the members of the Opposition want to meet every week. That’s not always possible… And we have to remember that when you go to meetings, and you’re not a minister, you get accommodation, housing, travelling, meals [allowances], etc, which maybe an incentive to have weekly meetings,” Teixeira posited.
The parliamentary Opposition had tabled a motion in November 2021, seeking to increase the PAC sittings to twice per week. However, that motion was defeated by the Government side of the committee.
The PAC is made up of nine members – five from Government and four from the Opposition.
Back in April 2022, a motion tabled by Government amended the quorum required for PAC meetings, stating that sittings could now be held only if two members of Government, two members of the Opposition and the Chairman are present.
Prior to the amendment, only three members were required to form a quorum from either side of the house.
However, since the introduction of the quorum, the Opposition claimed that Government Ministers are deliberately causing delays in the work of the PAC. In fact, only earlier this week, a similar accusation was levelled by Opposition Member of Parliament, David Patterson, following the cancellation of the PAC meeting on Monday.
But the Parliamentary Affairs Minister on Wednesday dismissed these claims, which she said are being used as a “red herring”.
“Look at the facts. Look at the number of meetings that were held. That’s the proof of the pudding and they show that the Opposition is wrong. The numbers of meetings held in 2023 after the quorum was introduced have not changed from the normal meetings held annually by the Public Accounts Committee, go to the data,” she insisted.
The PAC is a bipartisan parliamentary committee, which reviews the Auditor General’s reports on the spending of public funds. Some of the responsibilities of the committee include the examination of audited accounts, as presented in the Auditor General’s reports, showing the appropriation of sums approved by the National Assembly to meet public expenditure and other such accounts laid before the Assembly.
According to Teixeira, the Opposition was trying to rush through the Auditor General’s reports for the years that the APNU/AFC was in Office – something which Government would not allow. Currently, the PAC is dealing with the 2018 and 2019 AG reports.
“We’re trying to catch up but you can’t get to 2020… We still have the ones that go back and there is a reason why the Opposition is in a hurry. They don’t want the examination of their tenure in Government and we can point in every single Auditor General report – 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 – of very, very bad practices; very shady practices, and very questionable practices under their tenure. They’re in a hurry to get to 2021 because they want to come to us. Well, we have to finish them first,” the minister maintained. (G8)