By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Accounts Committee Chairman Hubert Chipman said he was “taken aback and shocked” by House Speaker Dr Kendal Major’s directive to the PAC to temporarily halt its probe into Urban Renewal 2.0.

This decision has prompted the PAC to seek independent legal opinion and the group is considering taking the matter to court to determine the perimeters of the opposition-led panel.

Dr Major’s ruling, according to East Grand Bahama MP Peter Turnquest, has “neutered” the committee.

Mr Turnquest insisted the future work of the PAC has now been thrown into disarray.

Mr Chipman told reporters yesterday that he disagreed with a number of the Speaker’s reasons, chief among them that the PAC can only exercise investigatory powers once an item is laid on the table of the House of Assembly.

He referred to the then-opposition Progressive Liberal Party’s extensive PAC investigation into the New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP). That probe uncovered tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns. Mr Chipman said he did not recall a report being tabled in Parliament or resolution brought before the House at the time.

Yesterday, Dr Major said he had instructed the PAC, which had been actively investigating Urban Renewal, to “stay its hand” until Parliament decides “how it intends to proceed” on the matter.

He said an audit prepared by Auditor General Terrance Bastian, which the PAC had ordered, had not been laid before the House of Assembly, and consequently was not in the category of documents “before the House so that to attract the scrutiny of the Public Accounts Committee.”

Afterwards, Mr Chipman expressed doubt that the government would table the controversial auditor general’s report, which would enable the PAC to proceed with its work.

Mr Chipman, supported by Mr Turnquest and Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn – opposition PAC members – voiced their displeasure with Dr Major’s position during a press conference following the morning House session.

The remaining members of the PAC are government MPs: Golden Gates representative Shane Gibson and Elizabeth MP Ryan Pinder.

Mr Chipman said: “I definitely don’t agree that everything that the PAC asks for has to go through Parliament. When you go back and look at what has transpired over the years with the PAC, particularly the road works, I don’t recall that having to go through Parliament or whether in fact audited statements or any type of review of those things (were tabled). I think at the time there were interviews with certain people and then they concluded on it.

“If you are the government and everything needs to go through Parliament where would that leave the Public Accounts Committee? It would be like a toothless tiger where we have no power because you will have to present a resolution to the House of Assembly, which has to go through the relevant minister at that particular time.

“So are we going to get anywhere with the government investigating themselves or referring something to the Public Accounts Committee? That cannot be right.”

Mr Chipman added that the PAC’s “hands were tied” as he questioned the role of the committee and how it could be effective in the future.

Responding to questions from The Tribune, Mr Chipman predicted that a planned probe related to the Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) will also “come to a screeching halt”.

Mr Chipman has previously said that the PAC asked Auditor General Terrance Bastian to investigate Urban Renewal. Mr Bastian’s audit was leaked to the press last month. It revealed, among other things, that 11 contractors in the Small Homes Repair Programme had received more than $170,000 for work they had not completed or done.

That report has not been tabled in Parliament.

Mr Turnquest lamented the Speaker’s ruling, calling it a “nail in the coffin of democracy”. He said it was ironic that the ruling would come on the same day that Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald made a communication about the highly anticipated Freedom of Information Act.

“The only power that the people of the Bahamas have to hold the government accountable (and) to ensure that the resources of the people are spent in ways that are transparent and in accordance with the budget, is for the PAC to be able to exercise its powers and responsibilities unfettered without interference,” he said. “Today it appears to have been taken away from the PAC (and it is) unprecedented in the operation of this Parliament.

“I think it is a threat to our democracy,” Mr Chipman concluded.

However, in a recent House of Assembly debate on the lack of insurance for the burned down BAMSI dormitories, Prime Minister Christie praised the power of the PAC and encouraged the committee to use its power.

“Mr Speaker,” he told the House, “if they (the FNM) feel there are discrepancies (and) inaccuracies even fraudulent manifestations (at BAMSI) they have the power to send for persons and papers and they have the majority of the committee,” Mr Christie said, referring to the Public Accounts Committee.

“It is that committee,” he said, “we used to expose one of the grandest displays of uncontrolled expenditure on the part of the opposition when they were the government. We used it effectively when someone who called (himself) deputy prime minister in their government was connected by shareholding to the company that got the contract and they around here talking about cronyism.

“It is that committee,” continued Mr Christie, “we used to expose one of the grandest displays of uncontrolled expenditure on the part of the opposition when they were the government. We used it effectively when someone who called (himself) deputy prime minister in their government was connected by shareholding to the company that got the contract and they around here talking about cronyism.”