7 News Belize

Faber Pounces On PAC Chairman
posted (January 17, 2019)

And while Faber wasn't too eager to speak about former UDP Minister Mark King, he was very candid about Julius Espat, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Last week Thursday Espat called a PAC meeting in Belmopan to discuss the Auditor General's report of 2012-2013; but no one from the government's side attended. Both sides of the political aisle are in disagreement as to the nature of the report. So, the government  members chose to prepare their own report. UDP members of the PAC were supposed to convene this past Tuesday to develop that report. So, today we asked Faber for an update:

Hon. Patrick Faber - PAC Member
"What ought to have happened was that a report should have been generated reflecting what those meetings detailed. Instead the chairman chose to write a report that was more in line with what he wanted to see and that was our problem. I understand that he went on record to say that I showed up to the meeting not reading the report which is completely and absolutely untrue. In fact it was because I read the report that I was not able to support him in passing that report as the majority report. You'll understand that this is a peculiar committee, it is the only one that the opposition chairs and that is why Honorable Espat is the chair but that stop the government from having the majority on this committee. So the government members felt that the report that was generated by the chairman did not adequately cover what the deliberations of the meetings were."

Reporter
"He's alluding that the government's side is attempting to gloss over some of the things or some of the wrong doings, financial wrong doings within the ministries."

Hon. Patrick Faber
"Absolutely not, in fact if you check the records there are recordings of all these meetings. You will see that the discussions, the deliberations that we had over the various aspects of the auditor general's report were openly discussed. In fact there were many occasions where we agreed on practices that may have gone wrong and what can be done to fix them but yet when the report came out, some of these things were not reflected in it and that is what really took us a back. So he has a different view, we have a different view. Both reports will be taken back but what I don't appreciate from him is his seeking the media attention when he knows in fact that we are working on the majority report; what will become the majority report."

Two reports will be tabled at a house meeting, one from the government side and one from the minority PUP side - which includes chairman Julius Espat. Government members of the PAC are scheduled to meet next Tuesday to begin developing their report on the auditor general's findings of that period.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize