Opposition frets over absent Govt. MPs at PAC

May 26, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton is of the view that the Government has started what he believes is a deliberate move to thwart the work of the Parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC).

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton.

His statement comes days after the representatives of the People’s Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C) were absent from the PAC meeting purportedly due to community engagements.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Norton explained that the Government side was a no-show at PAC’s statutory meeting of Monday, May 23, 2022 stalled the work of the committee. He said that this is just the beginning. According to Norton, on Monday, the Clerk of PAC informed the Opposition Members who were all present that the Government side has asked to be excused due to the flood situation in Region Nine.

“Also present for the meeting were the Finance Secretary, Accountant General and the Auditor General’s representative and the agencies to be examined (Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and Region Nine). The meeting could not have been held because of the new PPP-imposed definition of a quorum.

We anticipate that this will be the first of such government manoeuvres to thwart the work of the PAC so that the PAC will not be able to examine the accounts of 2020 and 2021. Guyanese should not be surprised that the PPP has no interest in advancing transparency and accountability. Its disdain for the people is palpable,” he said noting that this is reason why the PPP/C pushed for a change in the quorum of PAC.

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022, a motion was passed in the National Assembly of Guyana changing the quorum of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Before the passage of this motion, a quorum was any three members of the committee and this existed since 1963. A quorum now requires five members, two representing the Government, two representing the Opposition and the Chairperson.

During the debates, the Opposition argued that the motion is an attempt by Government to undermine transparency and accountability to the people. The Government denied this and mouthed that they will never seek to stymie the work of the Public Accounts Committee.