The English historian of government, Peter Hennessy, describes the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as “the queen of select committees which by its very existence exerts a cleansing effect in all government departments”. But, then, in the British House of Commons they don’t have ministers sitting on this committee, “scrutinising” their own departments.
Had Prof. Hennessy conducted some research in Malta he would probably have described our PAC as a ministers’ comfort zone where they sit on the committee to defend the government instead of standing before it to answer for their actions.
He would also have found the way ministers tried to stall progress within this committee fascinating.
For us it’s normal practice and, since there is no willingness to change because it suits the government, which has a majority on the committee, the situation will remain thus. And this is why we end up in situations like that of last week.
It has been reported that the Prime Minister told an interviewer that the Labour Party should take the Auditor’s report on the power station extension tender to the PAC. And what do you know? That’s exactly what we were about to do: Isn’t that why the committee commissioned the Auditor’s report and approved the terms of reference on May 26, 2009? We surely didn’t ask the Auditor to do the work for the fun of uploading it on our iPads.
But, when we tried to take the report to the PAC, our counterparts attempted to stop us. We agree with the Prime Minister, why don’t his ministers? The latest effort to halt the process was that of today week, whereby the Leader of the House, Tonio Borg, suggested – on a point of order – that we may not be able to discuss the Auditor’s report on the power station extension. This, because the matter has already been discussed and it would be a breach of the standing orders to debate the same thing twice.
The question hangs in the air: What is happening to these people? That Dr Borg of all people – who knows the standing orders inside out – should make such a statement is bewildering. Set aside the fact – which nobody present last Monday seems to have been aware of – that, as Mr Speaker ruled last Wednesday, the standing order referred to by Dr Borg is no longer in force as it was suspended in the first sitting of this legislature. Really, how confused do you have to be to quote a standing order which, as Leader of the House you must have had a hand at deferring? Why didn’t the Prime Minister – a former Speaker of the House who, obviously, also knows the rules very well – not intervene to stop this folly?
But what is worse is that even if the standing order Dr Borg quoted had not been suspended, it still couldn’t be applied to the matter at hand. What had been discussed in plenary session was Joseph Muscat’s motion on the power station extension. What we want to discuss at the PAC – and what the ministers seem to be in disagreement with their Prime Minister on – is the Auditor’s report on the power station extension. Dr Muscat’s motion and the Auditor General’s report are two different things altogether. So it is very clear we were not about to debate the same thing twice.
Another argument staring us in the face – and that is why I am even more perplexed at the attempt to hold us from discussing the Auditor’s report – is that, since it was the PAC that had asked the Auditor to examine the power station extension tendering process and present the committee with the report, the next logical step is to scrutinise the report at this committee. Otherwise, what is the scope of commissioning the report? So, really, why all this uneasiness?
The foregoing shows how unfocused the government is: The Prime Minister tells us to take the Auditor’s report to the PAC when it is obvious that is what we will do. When we take it there, the second-in-command creates obstacles by suggesting we may not be in order. When it is evident even to someone who has no knowledge of the standing orders that it was not the case.
We hold our own and they are splenetic with fury.
It is surreal how serious national issues are being turned to low farce, scarring what’s left of the public’s faith in the political process.
Dr Dalli is shadow minister for the public service and government investment.