Opposition Leader Godwin Friday has called a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for next Thursday, but said that he is not naïve to think that the government would not try to block it.
Friday announced the meeting at a joint press conference with his St. Lucian counterpart, Allen Chastanet, at the opposition New Democratic Party’s (NDP) headquarters in Kingstown on Wednesday.
Friday said that it is the first time in the life of the Ralph Gonsalves Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration that the public accounts have been audited during the life of a government.
He noted the Constitutional set up of the PAC “to look at the Public Accounts and to report back to the Parliament”, adding that the June 26 meeting will consider the 2021 and 2022 audit reports and the
The opposition leader said that as chairman of the committee, he has invited the director of audit, the accountant general and the budget director to appear before the committee.
Friday said that the meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Temporary Parliament Building in Glen, is open to the public, adding, “And I know that there’s great public interest in it.
“That’s the way I wish to see it conducted, and we look forward,” he said, adding that he wants the public to know that the PAC is “not an investigative body.
“It is not there looking to point fingers here and there. It is there to look at the public accounts which were produced,” the opposition leader said.
The PAC has not met since November 2011, when its then-chairman, who was opposition leader, Arnhim Eustace, called a meeting, but government lawmakers objected to it taking place, saying the rules had never been approved by Parliament.
Since then, the government have not taken any steps to approve the rules.
Friday noted that people have been critical of the absence of meetings of the PAC.
“That is, basically, the hypocrisy that was coming from the government side. ‘Oh, you haven’t brought the Public Accounts Committee to meet in so much time.’
“The principal document that the Public Accounts Committee considers is the report of the director of audit under the public accounts of the country. These reports have been seven, eight years behind,” Friday said.
“This is the first time in the history of this government that we have had reports of the Public Accounts Committee that are dealing with the life of the present government.”
He said that the 2021 and 2022 reports are “relevant and they address matters that are current, that people can still remember what exactly the questions we asked previously in Parliament on budget debates and so forth that we are following up at this session. So I’m looking forward to that”.
Friday noted that while he is the chairman of the committee, the government has a majority of members.
Fielding questions, the opposition leader said that no rules have been introduced since the government objected to the meeting taking place 14 years ago.
He pointed out that around 2004, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who was minister of finance, said his government was bringing three important pieces of financial legislation to Parliament, namely the Audit Act, Finance Administration Act and legislation dealing with the PAC.
However, the law dealing with the PAC was never brought to Parliament.
“Nothing has been done since then. And so, when we had that meeting that Mr. Eustace, as leader of the opposition, tried to convene …, it was terminated because the government side, which has a majority, said that we didn’t have proper rules from which to proceed,” Friday said.
“And then they come with the hypocritical kind of thing. ‘Oh, you’re not calling the Public Accounts Committee’ and so forth. Well, we made a lot of representations publicly about it, and I did in the Parliament as well.”
He said that last year, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rochelle Forde, put in writing what she had said in the parliament before.
“That is to say, as far as she is concerned, there are no obstacles to the operation of the Public Accounts Committee. So, I said that, taking her at her word that we are going to proceed on that basis,” Friday said.
He said that more than that, the opposition has complained about the lateness of the preparation of the report of the director of audit.
“Considering an audit report that is 8 years old, … you’re talking about a government that has passed maybe two governments ago.
“So, currently we have audit reports that are in the life of this present government. So we have the two things converging. That is to say that the speaker has told me in writing and in the Parliament that the committee will function as other select committees within the parliament will function.”
Friday said he has written to the speaker indicating that he intends to convene a meeting of the PAC on June 26 and provided an agenda, which has been circulated to the members of the committee.
“So far, so good. So, you asked me if I expect, no, I don’t expect to see that there would be obstacles, and I’m proceeding on that basis.”
Friday, however, said that he was “not naïve to know that this is a government that has essentially been providing obstruction every single step of the way in terms of how we function in the Parliament”.
He said that the opposition brought a motion of no confidence in the government and properly presented it to Parliament.
“The speaker now starts to debate it. And the prime minister at the time and the government side all argued that the opposition cannot bring a motion of no confidence unless the government agrees with it,” he said of the development in 2018, when Jomo Thomas, a former ULP senator and candidate, was speaker.
Friday said the government’s argument was “ludicrous” but was accepted as the decision of the Parliament.
“In fact, so bold-faced and egregious they were, they amended the motion of no confidence that we put forward, calling it, by title, a motion of confidence in the government, and reversing every statement that we made in that motion as though this is a joke.
“And then they’re telling you now that, ‘Oh, you shoulda bring the Public Accounts Committee, because you are you’re supposed to do it.
“Under the Constitution, we’re supposed to have a right as well to bring a motion of no confidence; they blocked it.”
He said that in the third sitting of each session of the Parliament, private members have the right to bring motions.
Friday said that when the NDP was in office, the government allowed the opposition to bring motions.
He, however, noted that the ULP administration began putting private members’ motions on the order paper “to pre-empt us from debating a private member’s motion”.
He said that the opposition has bought private members’ motions in the Parliament about 18 times and was only allowed to debate them once.
“… that was about two years ago when we were debating the issue of the quarry that Rayneau was starting down at Richmond, where they set aside some time to debate that. But prior to that, no opportunity was given.
“… they’re all being bloody hypocrites as far as I’m concerned, when they talk about this issue, about the Public Accounts Committee,” Friday said.
“But I am proceeding because I had the undertaking of the speaker in writing, and in Parliament, we have reports of the director about it, which are still out of date. They are two years behind, but they are better than six years behind. So, we are proceeding on that basis, and we are inviting you as a member of the press to be there too,” Friday said.