-Panday says will only support detailed scrutiny 

Public Works Minister Juan Edghill yesterday announced plans to take a proposal to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) aimed at clearing its longstanding backlog and bringing the committee’s scrutiny of government accounts up to date, but PAC Chairman Vishnu Panday says he will not support any approach that compromises detailed examination of the Auditor General’s reports.

Speaking at the official handing over of the Auditor General’s Report for the fiscal year 2025 in the Parliament Chamber, Public Buildings, Brickdam, Georgetown, Edghill, a member of the PAC, said the committee has been discussing ways to address the backlog and intends to present a proposal at its next sitting.

“There has been a lot of conversations about the backlog in terms of what is being examined at the PAC,” Edghill said. “It will be good for me to indicate that we intend at the next sitting of the PAC to bring a proposal that will make the backlog current, so that when we get the next AG report of 2026 in 2027, we will be examining 2026.”

Edghill said the proposal would bring an end to the prolonged public discussion surrounding the committee’s backlog. 

“This discussion and long debate that has been in the media about the backlog and the backlog and the backlog; we have debated and discussed this and we will be coming with a proposal of how we can make that backlog current,” he said.

However, speaking with Kiskadee Watch after the meeting, Panday said he is concerned that the proposed “fast-tracking”could result in the committee avoiding the detailed scrutiny expected of it. “Edghill’s statement on fast-tracking the backlog of work has to do… to avoid scrutiny and extensive details on the AG’s report for the backlogged years,” Panday posited, adding, “That by itself is viewed very seriously by me and other members on the PAC.”

He noted though that Edghill has not yet outlined the details of the proposal and therefore he could not say precisely what approach will be taken. “He did say that by 2027, we will be scrutinizing the 2026 report. At this point, I will be eagerly and anxiously awaiting to see what Minister Edghill and the members of the PPP will be presenting to the PAC.” 

The chairman said he understood Edghill’s proposal to involve combining the outstanding reports but warned that he would not automatically support such an approach. “He seems to want to combine all of the backlog years and to have a combined approach. I would not be too inclined unless I am satisfied that the combined reports make sense to do,” he said, adding, “If not, I will not be inclined to follow that suggestion. We will go through every report in details to ensure that we justify the public’s expectations.” 

The PAC has been grappling with a substantial backlog of Auditor General’s reports and in August, Panday said the committee was already six years behind in scrutinising the reports. He warned that based on the historical pace of its work, clearing the backlog could take until 2032.

He had previously said that infrequent meetings and absenteeism by committee members had contributed to the backlog. When he was elected PAC chairman in June, he pledged to address the delays and said he wanted to review documentation from the last report completed in 2018 before determining the way forward.

Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran has proposed a two-pronged approach to the problem, suggesting that the full nine-member PAC examine the latest available audited public accounts while a five-member subcommittee deals with the backlogged years from 2019 to 2023.

The PAC’s current membership includes five government members – Edghill, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira, Deputy Speaker Vishwa Mahadeo, Suresh Singh and Sanjeev Datadin – and four opposition members including Panday, Nandranie Singh, Juretha Fernandes and Ganesh Mahipaul.