Published 22 May 2017
Foreign Minister Mark Brantley was chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the previous National Assembly.
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, May 22nd 2017 – The chair of the last Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was Hon. Mark Brantley, then Leader of the Opposition and now the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aviation in the Team Unity Government of Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris.
Mr. Brantley, who was appointed chairman of the PAC in April 2010 by then Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, in an interview with WINNFM in April 2010, said that the Public Accounts Committee will ensure that the government’s expenditures are appropriate and all expenditure is being done in a proper and appropriate manner.
“This Public Accounts Committee is a critically important committee for purposes of maintaining a check on the government and its use of public funds to ensure that funds are allocated appropriately and to the purpose to which they should be allocated.” Mr. Brantley is quoted by WINNFM.
According to Mr. Brantley, the Public Accounts Committee has the authority to ask questions about government expenditure and to even call for civil servants to stand before it to shed light on any spending.
When asked by WINNFM if the Public Accounts Committee had the authority to request access to any government accounts, Mr. Brantley replied: “that is my understanding. That once sums have been expended by the government, then the Public Accounts Committee can seek to ascertain how those sums are being spent, whether they were budget for, how they were allocated, and indeed whether or not the purpose for which they were allocated is being met in practice. So, it’s a wide mandate and it clearly is something that has to be used judiciously, but nonetheless used to ensure transparency in government expenditure.”
The other members appointed to the PAC with Mr. Brantley were Dr. Timothy Harris, then Labour MP for St. Christopher 7, Mr. Patrice Nisbett of the NRP MP for Nevis 11, Mr. Shawn Richards, the PAM MP for St. Christopher 5, and Senator Nigel Carty of the Labour Party.
The previous chairman of the PAC was the late Mr. Malcolm Guishard.
The duties and powers of the Public Accounts Committee, drawn from both sides of the lawmaking body are to ascertain that the authorised expenditure during each financial year including supplementary expenditure has been applied to the purposes prescribed by the National Assembly; scrutinise the causes which may have led to any excess over authorised expenditure and to verify applications of savings on other authorised items of expenditure; make an effective examination of public accounts kept in any Department of Government and summon any public officer to give any information or any explanation or to produce any records or documents which the Committee considers necessary in the performance of its duties. After nearly two and a half years of trampling on the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution by refusing to appoint a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris appears rushing to have one in place ahead of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Conference to be held in St. Kitts next month.
Opposition Parliamentarians, both at the Federal level in Basseterre and the Nevis Island Administration level in Charlestown, have been urging their respective Prime Minister Harris and Premier Hon. Vance Amory, to appoint the PAC in compliance with the Constitution. The Nevis Island Assembly is soon to end its five year term without a PAC ever in place.
Now with a conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) set to convene here in June, Prime Minister Harris in an effort to save embarrassment indicated last week that after two and a half years, he has “identified its membership and will propose to the Parliament the establishment of a five member committee comprising members of government and members of the opposition.”
The absence of the PAC in the National Assembly was raised with the recent IMF Mission to St. Kitts and Nevis by Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas
