Last night, we told you about the Briceno Government's plan to reform the Public Accounts Committee. They intend to surrender majority control of this important House committee that is supposed to provide transparency in public spending.
As we reported, the government will introduce a motion at tomorrow's House Meeting to amend the Standing Orders of this committee. This motion will allow the committee's membership to increase from 6 to 9, by adding 3 social partner senators to the PAC. That's important because, while the Opposition Party chairs the committee, in the past, the House majority could often frustrate attempts at getting any meaningful work done.
But, not after the new motion passes - and that's because the majority will be non-government members, two from the opposition and three from the social partners.
This evening, we spoke with Tracy Taegar-Panton, the UDP parliamentarian who will chair the PAC.
She told us that she wants to see the PAC truly perform its function, and not just be used for politicking. Here's that conversation via ZOOM:
Hon. Tracy Taegar-Panton - New PAC Chairperson "Prior to the general elections, the opposition had announced a part of its manifesto commitments some recommended changes to the public accounts committee, which I believe should be discussed sometime shortly. Those proposals have not been shared with the opposition as yet and so it is part of the reform agenda but we haven't had a chance to look at the proposals and discuss the proposal as to determine what proposals we feel will serve in the best interest of the role and function I would play as the chairperson. I know one of the proposals from the now administration is for the membership of the PAC to be expanded to include social partners and so we will have to look at as a group, really what it is that we want to achieve, we want to use the public accounts committee to witch hunt or do we want to the use the committee to make meaningful changes in the system, so that we can properly account for public finances and then agree on an agenda and how we're going to move forward as a committee that will really bring meaningful benefit to the role and function we are expected to play."
Daniel Ortiz "Give us an idea as to how you intend to lead."
Hon. Tracy Taegar-Panton "We have been discussing it internally as a party, you know I represent the opposition on the publics account committee but we really want to remain open to the proposals that may come forth from the government of the day and to look at that. I think it's absolutely important that we agree on some fundamentals in terms of how we are going to conduct our business, how we are going to report on our business and the member from Cayo South was very often on the local media when he chaired the public accounts committee and having served on the committee myself, a lot of that information really was not absolutely accurate and I think those things led to really the kind of concerns even that some our social partners continue to have are really serious about making changes we say we want to make and to do the things that are required from us to govern properly."
The new chairperson asserts that the Opposition has not been consulted on the proposed amendments, and so they are waiting to see what exactly the government is actually proposing. After those amendments have been ratified, the date of the first PAC meeting will be decided.
