The Standing Public Accounts Committee (PAC) held a public hearing on Thursday, 27th July 2023 to investigate the status of past recommendations made to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MFED) in the areas of budgeting, and, financial management and reporting, as per the Auditor General’s report, “Follow-up on past PAC recommendations 2023 – Report 1 (March 2023).

The Financial Secretary and the Accountant General attended as witnesses in order to provide the Committee with information and documentation it requires per Parliament Standing Order 72 (1).

The PAC chose to hold the public hearing after reviewing the Auditor General’s report, “Follow-up on past PAC recommendations 2023 – Report 1”, published in March 2023. The hearing serves to enable the PAC to assess the government’s responses to the Committee’s reports of 15th July 2021 and 8th December 2021, as well as the recommendations made by the Auditor General in December 2020 and May 2021.

The Auditor General’s report, which is available on the Office of the Auditor General’s website, lists 17 past recommendations to the government in the area of budgeting, and 16 past recommendations in the area of financial management and reporting. The PAC endorsed all of the Auditor General’s past recommendations in its own reports from 2021, but did not make any additional recommendations at that time.

Following the hearing on Thursday, the PAC held an administrative meeting where they intend to discuss the evidence they received from the Financial Secretary and the Accountant General, and will start to prepare the Committee’s report on the Auditor General’s report. The PAC may wish to make additional recommendations to the government in addition to those set forth by the Auditor General. Parliament Standing Order 77 (7) specifies that the government must respond to such recommendations within three months of the PAC’s report being tabled in the House of Parliament.

The PAC is one of the few standing committees established by the Cayman Islands Constitution and is a non-partisan committee responsible for holding the government to account for its spending and financial management. The current membership of the PAC at the time of the Hearing is:

• Hon. Roy McTaggart, Chairman;
• Hon. Isaac Rankine, Member;
• Ms. Barbara Conolly, Member;
• Ms. Heather Bodden, Member;
• Mr. Joseph Hew, Member; and,
• Hon. Dr. W. McKeeva Bush, Member.

The public are invited to watch the PAC hearings on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/live/imwBsRYhBlY?feature=share&t=1898].

To learn more about the PAC, please click here.