Ivan O’Neal writes G-G for PAC chair

Your Excellency, Sir Frederick Ballantyne,

Section 76 of our 1979 constitution mandates there shall be a Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The duties of the PAC are set out in section 75 (2).{{more}} It is to see that money appropriated by parliament and disbursed has been applied to the purposes to which the money was so appropriated, and that expenditure confirmed to the governing of it.

From 2001 to 2010, no PAC report was tabled in the House of Assembly. Attempts were made by the ULP and NDP parliamentarians in 2001 and 2003 to prepare PAC reports, but were aborted with only minutes recorded on both occasions.

The PAC is a constitutional right of SVG citizens. The ULP and NDP parliamentarians have shown they do not have the academic skills to do the work of the PAC. This does not mean the electorate should not be given the right to form a PAC outside of the house of assembly.

I have BSc (hons) degree in finance in which I studied public accounts auditing. I have also audited the accounts of the ULP Credit Union. I write to request that I be appointed chairman of the PAC, to carry out the responsibility set out in section 75 (2) of the 1979 SVG constitution.

The non-functioning of the PAC is extremely serious, in that it can induce corruption and mal-practice. It gives the minister of finance carte blanche to wastefully spend. For example, in 2007, PM Gonsalves over-spent $63 million without prior authorisation of parliament. National debt has climbed from $553 in 2001 to $1.78 billion in 2011. This must be put right by appointing an external Public accounts Committee. I look forward to hearing from you with a positive response.

Yours faithfully

Ivan O’Neal BSc(Hons), MSc, MBA

Leader and Co-founder of SVG Green Party

cc: PM Gonsalves

Leader of the Opposition

Chief Justice of OECS

Board of Directors of CDB and OECS Central Bank

Cabinet secretary