Bob Richards, chairman of Bermuda’s parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which oversees Government spending, has just returned from a Commonwealth workshop revealing that most equivalent bodies meet in public. The Bermuda PAC still meets behind closed doors, despite Government’s ballooning budgets and need to increase accountability for its spending during the current financial crisis.
Bermuda’s PAC, made up of three Government MPs and two from the Opposition, agreed unanimously in 2004 that it should open its doors to the public — but five years later it still meets in secret.
The decision to allow it to meet publicly must come from the parliamentary Rules and Privileges Committee, which is in the process of reviewing whether all parliamentary committees should be opened up…
The Royal Gazette understands that the committee is waiting on a rewrite of the House of Assembly Rules, undertaken by a subcommittee.
Not only should the PAC meet in public, but so should the parliamentary Rules and Privileges Committee!
Richards points out that the PAC often has problems meeting its quorum, adding that by the time the committee filed its reports to Parliament they were usually “ancient history”. A little public transparency would certainly improve that.
It’s our Government! We deserve better.
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