PAC chair aims to set date to examine AG reports
(CNS): The chair of the Public Finance Committee (PAC) has said that the members of the committee are scheduled to meet this Thursday behind closed doors in order to set a date to hold an open meeting to examine the latest reports from the Auditor General’s Office. Aside from the State of Financial Accountability Reporting, Ezzard Miller said the committee would also be examining the Review of the Legal Aid Programme and the AG’s report on the internal audits of Fuel Card Usage and Management.
Although the PAC chair had said it was his aim that the committee would meet on a monthly basis when he took the post, the committee’s last public meeting was in November 2009. Since then the committee has met in-camera on 3 December but has not had any meetings of any kind behind closed doors or in public since.
Miller noted in his recent annual report of the PAC, tabled in the LA in March, that committee meetings had been cancelled on a number of occasions as not enough members had turned up. The last scheduled meeting, according to Miller’s report, should have been on 27 January but it could not be called to order as insufficient members were present.
The independent North Side representative noted that the problem seemed to be that government backbench MLAs sitting on the committee had been given other roles and therefore were frequently unable to attend. As a result, he suggested that the PAC membership be revised and existing members who were over committed could be replaced by members of the House with less commitments.
However, government has yet to respond to Miller’s recommendations and at this stage the members of the committee remain as they were in May 2009 with Cline Glidden, Elio Solomon and Dwayne Seymour from the government benches and just Moses Kirkconnell from the opposition with Miller, the parliament’s only independent member, as chair.
If the PAC is able to form a quorum for its next scheduled meeting to discuss the AG’s latest report on the State of Financial Accountability Reporting it will be the first time that CFOs will be publicly questioned on the dire state of government accounts.
Category: Local News
Is it just me who see the irony, they will meet in secret to set a date for a public meeting!
Due in a large part to the incompetent and unethical way of (leadership?) Cayman itself has become like a large bank that by law everyone must put their money in and not have any expectations as to getting anything out of it but rude customer service. This is Cayman today.
What a shame government members that are elected to such an important committee do not show up, it’s high time that the public demand more from/of their representatives that are paid quite well. It is becoming clearer each day why the UK needs to run this place, government has failed to do its job and if they are allowed to continue we will only end up in financial ruins.
Wait a minute XXXX you publicly stated the accounts would be up to date by October 2009! Need another meeting to set another date?
This is the problem matey, when we are political apointees and if you dont like the chair, they protest. Now if you want to see and know how da money is spent and who got what, attend de meetings. Or could it be that some of those apointees have family or friends in some of the budgets that are being questioned,ah matey, what a tangled web we weave.
It is sad to see CNS becoming politically correct.
The word is CHAIRMAN, regardless of whether the holder of the position is male or female.
A chair is a piece of furniture.
CNS: Methinks language doth change, Chris.
A "chair" Chris is a place someone sits their a** down. A Chairman is a man who sits his a** in a chair. So both you and CNS are right but to remain pc… Mr. Miller, as Chair of PAC is sitting his a** in a chair.
And not much else.
"when is the new guy coming?"
"soon I hope. duguay is a pain in the a$$."
"are you going to the meeting?"
"are you kidding!!! i’m going to be busy"
"who’s going to the meeting??"
"no one who’s smart. anyone who goes to the meeting will have to acknowledge the drastic problem."
"what drastic problem??"
"haven’t you read the report!!!"
"oh."
"and what about the cfo’s?"
"if they’re smart, they’ll be unavailable."
"how long do you think we can keep this up?"
"indefinitely, i hope."