Cut off funding to delinquent public bodies - House c'ttee
Published:Thursday | March 3, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
PARLIAMENT'S PUBLIC Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) will be proposing to the House of Representatives that funding to public bodies with outstanding annual reports be cut off until they become compliant.
Committee Chairman Dr Wykeham McNeill threw down the gauntlet yesterday when he sent a strong message to chairmen of the boards of public bodies.
"I suspect that from here on, those that are not compliant, our recommendations will be to cut off the funding until they do become compliant because we cannot be approving the Estimates of Expenditure and there is a disregard for the procedures to be done," McNeill declared.
Forty of the 94 delinquent entities were summoned before the PAAC to provide an explanation for their tardiness in submitting annual reports.
Some public bodies had outstanding annual reports dating back to the 1990s. At least 16 entities under the Office of the Prime Minister were found wanting as they had not submitted annual reports for a number of years.
Committee member Dr St Aubyn Bartlett called for tough sanctions against heads of public bodies whose agencies had flouted the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act (PBMA).
Summoned to appear
At least 40 government departments and agencies were yesterday summoned to appear before the PAAC to explain why their entities were in a state of delinquency in respect of annual reports.
Bartlett argued that many of the non-compliant public bodies that had not submitted their annual reports on time had been vigilant in submitting their quarterly contract award reports to the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) on time.
"I am sure there is not one of these agencies here today that had not made a quarterly report to (Contractor General) Mr (Greg) Christie, because Mr Christie ensures that they make their quarterly reports to be made or they go before the director of public prosecutions and everybody is afraid of that," he contended.
In early February, the OCG reported that the 198 procuring public bodies registered an unprecedented and record 100 per cent compliance rate for the eighth consecutive quarter running. The entities are required to submit quarterly contract award reports with the OCG.
"Some of these agencies are handling billions of dollars of taxpayers money and we need to know how they are accounting for it, I am not going to accept any of these lame excuses," Bartlett charged.
Dr Alwin Hayles, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Works, supported Bartlett's position, pointing out that the PBMA had no teeth in relation to the non-submission of annual reports.
He agreed with Bartlett that the statute should prescribe penalties for public bodies that breach the law.