The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A LEGAL opinion purportedly sought by the Office of the Attorney General dismissing the legality of the Public Accounts Committee’s actions as it investigates Urban Renewal may have interfered with House Speaker Dr Kendal Major’s decision to summon Urban Renewal’s co-chairs to appear before the PAC.

Speaking with The Tribune yesterday, Dr Major confirmed that to date, his office has not issued any instructions for the programme’s co-chairs, Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen to appear before the PAC.

He suggested that the legal opinion, which was reportedly sought from international and local attorneys, might have delayed him from performing that action.

Dr Major also confirmed that he, after meeting with his parliamentary clerks, has determined “a clear way forward” on the matter. However, he said they were “still taking the matter under advisement”.

“The PAC had invited the co-chairs (to appear for a hearing),” he told The Tribune yesterday. “Obviously you know that they refused. They wrote me a letter complaining that they did their part and the co-chairs refused . . .”

“I then met with the PAC chairman and secretary and it was at that meeting where I had advised that I was not minded to summon them, but because of the extenuating circumstances to accord them another opportunity. It was during that consideration I received this opinion from the attorney general’s office and that kind of took things in another direction. But they (the co-chairs) never received anything directly from me at all.”

Dr Major said he has met with the clerks in the House of Assembly to figure out the next steps.

“That meeting did happen and we came up with an agreement and a clear direction forward. (We are) still taking the matter under advisement so a final decision has not been made as yet. But obviously it is still very fluid and active.”

Last week, Dr Major said that a letter of request would be sent to the co-chairs to appear before the PAC as opposed to serving them with subpoenas. However, at the time Dr Major declined to say any more “because there is another added extenuating circumstance that recently came up that may have legal complications.”

On April 16, Mrs Pratt and Mr Allen refused to appear before a scheduled hearing with the PAC concerning the specifics of a scathing audit that was leaked to the media. They said they could not make that scheduled meeting because of short notice and prior engagements.

In a letter, however, the co-chairs also said that the audit was illegal because it has not gone through proper parliamentary channels and had not been tabled in Parliament. They have also said the audit is incomplete. The co-chairs said they would appear before the PAC at an appropriate date only if the report was removed from the scope of questioning.

Days later the legal opinion was leaked to the press. This left Dr Major “shocked” and “taken aback” by the document, which he called “unprecedented.”

Although asked about the matter, Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson has not confirmed if the document originated from her office.

The legal opinion said the PAC’s course of action in summoning Mrs Pratt and Mr Allen was “legally improper.” The document also says the process by which the audit was commissioned “may have undermined the constitutional independence of the auditor general and engaged a violation of the separation of powers doctrine.”

PAC Chairman Hubert Chipman initially said the group asked Auditor General Terrance Bastian to audit Urban Renewal. However, it was found that the auditor general already had Urban Renewal on his agenda.

That audit found a lack of transparency and accountability in the Small Homes Repair Programme and that Urban Renewal had weak internal controls and was open to “abuse.”