Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2018 News
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Irfaan Ali is appalled by the request from the Ministry of Communities to suspend the examination of the 2016 Auditor General Report for the remaining Regional Democratic Councils to allow for better preparations by regional officials.
According to Ali, the Auditor General’s 2016 report has been released for more than a year and at the PAC meetings, the Finance Secretary and the Accountant General confirmed that sessions were held with the regional officials to prepare them for the PAC.
“I think the REOs ought to be prepared. They had a lot of time to be prepared. They had the Auditor General report over a year now. They had exit conferences with the Auditor General. The Finance Secretary and the Accountant General clarified that they have met with these officials on many occasions. There should be nothing hindering their level of preparedness to come before the committee,” Ali noted.
The Ministry of Communities sent a letter to Ali dated June 26th, 2018, asking the PAC to consider the request for a suspension. Ali noted that this will be done at the PAC’s next meeting on Monday when the committee resumes the examination of the 2016 expenditure.
However, Ali is of the view that the regional officials should have their houses in order and give account for taxpayers’ funds.
“You have a budgetary allocation and you’re supposed to have the documentation to support the expenditure. All you have to do is come to the PAC, answer clearly, precisely and honestly, and not skirt around the issues,” Ali noted.
The PAC of Parliament is a bi-partisan committee, although the Government holds a 5-4 majority.
There has been heavy media coverage of the PAC meetings which has resulted in very damning information regarding expenditure becoming public. The most recent, was the admittance of the REO of Region Six that the region engaged in contract splitting to purchase medical gloves.
Then there were revelations that Region Six accepted a bulldozer from a supplier which was contrary to what was requested in the bid documents. Following media reports, the supplier refunded Government over $14M.
Region 5 REO was sent away from the PAC meetings and is now under investigation for allegedly refusing to cooperate with the Auditor General’s request for information.
The timing of the Ministry’s request is interesting, given that the Government is preparing for Local Government Elections scheduled to be held within six months. Region Four, which is controlled by the Government, is still to appear before the PAC.
Ali was asked if the request from the Ministry was made to stop the embarrassment by the regional officers ahead of the elections.
He replied, “I don’t want to get into that. The committee will get into that. In my view, the regional administration had enough time to prepare and they ought to come and account for their stewardship to the PAC,” Ali noted.
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