For what is now the tenth time since a quorum change, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament meeting was on Monday cancelled after government members were a no-show due to other commitments.
The meeting scheduled for Monday last was aborted subsequent to chairman, Jermaine Figueira, being informed of non-attendance excuses by government members.
In a brief comment, Figueria disclosed that Government Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, informed him that she was travelling. Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, and Director General at the Ministry of Health, Dr Vishwa Mahadeo informed the committee of their non-availability via the clerk of the committee. They too were travelling. Edghill had accompanied Prime Minister Mark Phillips to Linden for a visit and meeting with BOSAI following a workplace incident where a worker was buried under overburden. Mahadeo informed that he was in Region Nine. Attorney Sanjeev Datadin when contacted by this newspaper explained that he was required to honour obligations in court.
A disappointed Figueira, reiterated APNU+AFC’s opposition to the present quorum.
Following the cancellation of the ninth meeting Teixeira had dismissed the opposition’s claims that her side of the PAC was attempting to stymie the work of the body following their absence.
Following the change in the quorum, 10 meetings have so far been cancelled. The other PAC cancellations occurred on May 23, 2022 (mere weeks after a change to the previous quorum was adopted), July 11, 18 and 25; November 21 and 28; December 12; and February 6 and 13, 2023.
“It is important that we are allowed to do our work in the interest of transparency and accountability,” Figueira had previously told Stabroek News. He added that the absence of meetings delays their work, which he described as unfair as the PAC has an obligation to report to the National Assembly.
“We have a backlog and now we are being handicapped by this situation. The Guyanese people need to know how [their] monies were spent and what it was spent on,” the chairman pointed out.
Teixeira had countered that the PAC is not a full-time job, as other members from her side of the House are engaged in jobs which have demanding schedules and require out of town travel at intervals.
Further, she argued that she and Edghill are two of the most experienced members on the PAC. Sitting on the committee, she explained, allows them to groom young members in the interim.
Before the change of quorum, a meeting required the presence of three members irrespective of which side of the House they were from. Opposition members, then, had argued in defence of the three-member quorum reasoning that if it was changed, government members would use the new formula to stymie the work of the PAC. The new quorum that guides the current PAC requires five members, two from either side of the House plus the Chairman.
Teixeira, when defending her tabling of the motion to change the quorum, had said that the amendment of the quorum for the PAC offered protection to both sides of the National Assembly. She argued that the 2-2-1 formula provides for greater participation when scrutinising the Auditor General’s reports and secures representation of both sides. She pointed out that on two occasions, while the government side of the House was absent, the opposition made decisions without their input.
