The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis administration’s restrictive view of the powers of the House of Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee “seems odd” and may be unconstitutional, House Speaker Halston Moultrie said yesterday.

He stressed that this is only his preliminary view on the matter.

Opposition leader Philip Davis, head of the PAC, recently tabled an interim report that said the committee has been stalled, thwarted and handicapped in its mandate to serve as a check on the executive. He blamed the Minnis administration’s interpretation of former House Speaker Dr Kendal Major’s 2015 ruling about the PAC’s powers.

That ruling was made during the last Christie administration, of which Mr Davis was a part.

The Minnis administration has said the ruling allows the PAC to exercise its power to subpoena, investigate, examine and review only audited accounts tabled in the House of Assembly, not public accounts generally.

Stressing that his investigation of the matter is incomplete, Speaker Moultrie, pictured right, said: “If we function within the scope of the existing ruling there is still a lot of work that can be done by the Public Accounts Committee because since becoming Speaker I think I’ve tabled some 21 reports from the auditor general. There were many issues raised in those reports.

“However, what [Dr Major’s] ruling does restrict is the Public Accounts Committee’s ability to access information, call persons, compel the production of papers for matters that have not been audited, tabled or referred to the committee. That is the restriction. In all of my studies and research on the matter that seems to me an odd position and it seems in my estimation an almost unconstitutional position to put the Public Accounts Committee in. I believe fundamental to the constitutional position of Parliament is that it should be in a position to check the executive in the best interest of the citizens of The Bahamas.

“That is a fundamental role of Parliament given the separation of powers. Nothing should impede the functioning of any of the standing committees of Parliament because it is through those standing committees that Parliament is able to effectively carry out its constitutional mandate.”

The PAC is the only standing committee that is traditionally controlled by the Official Opposition. To aid his decision-making, Speaker Moultrie said he is consulting his peers globally.

“I’ve sent that previous ruling to some colleagues in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and see if there is any precedence with respect to the role and function of the Public Accounts Committee that has been made in the past,” he said. “I’m also reviewing all the circumstances that led up to that ruling. The greatest challenge I’m having right now with respect to completing it in a timely fashion is the fact that our business and rules committee hasn’t met to give me a final position on the rules.”