PAC vows to catch-up

| 07/07/2009

(CNS): Speaking in the Legislative Assembly last week the newly elected chair of the PublicAccounts Committee, Ezzard Miller, said that members have committed to catching up as quickly as possible on some ten outstanding reports from the auditor general. The seriousness of the current backlog was demonstrated when the chair placed before the House a report conducted by the Auditor General’s Office back in 2003 on CUC. Despite raising some serious concerns that should have been revealed to the public, the report has remained secret for over five years because of the failings of the PAC.

Prior to a change in the law, before a report from the AG’s office could be made public the PAC was supposed to examine the content, call witnesses and submit its own comments back to the AG. However, because the committee failed in this regard, the 2003 CUC report has had to wait until now to see the light of day. Miller told the house that there were several more reports including the final Special Report on the Affordable Housing Initiative, which has not yet been seen by the public (although some of the content in that report was revealed recently by CNS as a result of an FOI request).

Until last month it was some 12 months since the public accounts committee had met, and while many of the AGs reports have now become public documents, the PAC has yet to examine a further eight reports including the Special Report on the State of Financial Accountability Reporting, which first revealed the alarming extent of government departments and agencies’ failure to account for public spending.

Tabling the PAC’s first report to the LA, Miller said that from now on the PAC would meet regularly on a monthly basis, and that he aimed to tackle all of the outstanding reports before September. He noted that since the election of the new committee it had already met four times, and once the backlog was addressed the committee intended to keep current.

With regards to the 2003 CUC report, he explained that, although no written submissions had been made or witnesses been called, due to the passage of time and the fact that CUC’s licence had been renewed, the committee had decided to simply release the report into the public domain without specific recommendations.

Miller noted that the committee had, however, noted the concerns in the report raised by the AG’s office and therefore had suggested that those involved in future negotiations with CUC need to be aware of the report’s concerns and that the AG should now review the new licence with CUC to ensure it adequately addresses the issues he had raised in this report.

The chairman also told the LA that the committee had agreed to hold further meetings in public except for housekeeping meetings and where sensitive or confidential issues were being raised.

During the committee’s recent meetings, the chair impressed upon the financial secretary the need to clear the backlog of government’s financial reports and that the financial years from 04/05 to 08/09 should be concluded by April 2010 and that ministries and portfolios should not allow this year’s financial reports to fall behind.

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  1. PPM = Failure says:

    Ok Sorry! Ozzie ‘was‘ a lame duck politician!!!

    And thank you for pointing out that article in the net news but it doesn’t mean anything because like any other lame duck politician he simply provides lip service to the issues but never gets anything done. When we have no audited financials and the PAC doesn’t meet for an entire year… that is a enditement on the past chair of the PAC and his inability to get his house in order.

    Ezzard has done more in the last month with the PAC than Ozzie has done in over a year!! Ozzie can’t be let off the hook on this one.

    Oh and this excuse that the report was done in 2003 when Mac was leader and not the PPM doesn’t really help your arguement. Because last time I checked it was the PPM who negotiated a new contract with CUC. So if the PPM had this report  which contains details "raising some serious concerns that should have been revealed to the public" why didn’t they reveal this report? I’ll answer that for ya… it was because it would have hampered any negotiations with the CUC.

    So come on PPM supporters…. let’s here some more excuses!

    • Anonymous says:

      Dear Failure,

      "Oh and this excuse that the report was done in 2003 when Mac was leader and not the PPM doesn’t really help your arguement. Because last time I checked it was the PPM who negotiated a new contract with CUC. So if the PPM had this report  which contains details "raising some serious concerns that should have been revealed to the public" why didn’t they reveal this report? I’ll answer that for ya… it was because it would have hampered any negotiations with the CUC".

      Your ‘handle’ makes your bias clear but this statement is simply ridiculous. At least try to ascertain the facts before posting and think logically.  Negotiations were started with CUC by the UDP Govt. in 2003. The interim results of those negotiations were reflected in a 2004 Heads of Agreement between the Govt. and CUC. This HoA formed the basis of negotiations commenced by the PPM Govt. in 2005. It follows that (1) it was in the first instance incumbent on the UDP Govt. to have disclosed this report; and (2) the first question must be whether the UDP negotiated HoA took into account the Auditor General’s Report of 2003.

      Apparently when facts are cited but simply do not fit into your anti-PPM rhetoric then they are dismissed as "excuses".

      "Ezzard has done more in the last month with the PAC than Ozzie has done in over a year!!"

      Here’s your bias again. When Mr. Bodden speaks urging statutory authorities etc. to get their accounts up to date and audited, it is dismissed as "lip service". All that Mr. Miller has done in the past month is speak about what he intends to do and what should be done, yet you are hailing it as a great accomplishment. You simply have no credibility.

       

  2. anonymous says:

    If PPM = Failure then I say UDP = Joke Joke…..you pick up on the PAC not having met for 12 months but noticeably kept quiet on the report issued by the Auditor General in 2003 which ‘…raised some serious concerns that should have been revealed to the public’….take note – the UPD was the Government at that time…..

  3. PPM = Failure says:

    ‘Until last month it was some 12 months since the public accounts committee had met’

    And Ozzie (the former chair of the PAC) wanted to say that it was the fault of civil servants as to the backlog of reports. Ozzie is such a ‘lame duck’ politician.

    Typical PPM…. always blaming civil servants for their inabilities…

    • Anonymous says:

      "Ozzie is such a ‘lame duck’ politician".

      You are misusing the term. Mr. Bodden is no longer in office and cannot therefore be a ‘lame-duck’.

      "The seriousness of the current backlog was demonstrated when the chair placed before the House a report conducted by the Auditor General’s Office back in 2003 on CUC. Despite raising some serious concerns that should have been revealed to the public, the report has remained secret for over five years because of the failings of the PAC".

      If you will recall, this report was conducted back in 2003 when Mr. Bush was last LOGB andMr. Bodden was not chair of the PAC. The failures of the PAC cannot be laid exclusively at his feet.  

      You ignore press reports of Mr. Bodden urging the ministries and statutory authorities to get up to date in their reports:

      Cayman Net News: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

      "PAC Chairman Osbourne Bodden has joined the Auditor General Dan Duguay in strongly urging Government ministries and portfolios, as well as statutory authorities, to comply with the Public Management and Finance Law regarding the submission of financial statements for auditing.  The PAC Chairman urged Chief Financial Officers to “get to grips and get up to date"

  4. Clearviewer says:

    Well, good luck Miller, lets see if this government will release the info that is needed. But, we know that you have the stamina to withstand the B/S. so please do not give in to them. we need to know what is going on.