Tabling of auditor general’s PICA report raises questions
Published:Wednesday | July 19, 2023 | 12:12 AM
The tabling of the auditor general’s special audit report on the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Juliet Holness, yesterday raised more questions than answers in Gordon House.
Leader of Opposition Business in the Lower House, Phillip Paulwell, asked Holness if she was reversing the position held by House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert in tabling the PICA audit report.
“I don’t know of that. I do clearly recall the Speaker having a discussion with the Parliament as it related to public bodies under Section 30 and not as it relates to executive agencies which operate in the same way as do ministries, departments and agencies, and as such I have actually included PICA’s report,” Holness said.
Paulwell asked if she had just received the PICA report.
Responding, Holness said: “I came to Parliament, the report I saw on the desk in keeping with the requirement to table as received reports for ministries, agencies and departments of which executive agencies qualify, I am tabling the report.”
However, the PICA report states that the document was sent to Parliament on June 12.
This means that the PICA report has been before Parliament for at least six weeks before it was tabled.
Also noteworthy was that Holness presided over the sitting of the House on June 27 at which time the PICA report was not tabled.
On July 4, Dalrymple Philibert signalled that she was also in possession of an AuGD report on the National Works Agency (NWA).
NOT TABLED
The NWA audit report, which is also in the possession of the Speaker for weeks, was not tabled yesterday. The NWA became an executive agency on April 1, 2001.
The House Speaker on July 4 said she would discontinue the practice of tabling reports on public bodies from the AuGD immediately after they have been received but would hold them for two months in keeping with Section 30 subsection 2 of the FAA Act.
Dalrymple Philibert was challenged on her decision by Julian Robinson, member of parliament for St Andrew South East, who pointed out that PICA and NWA are executive agencies and as such AuGD reports from those entities should be tabled.
But Dalrymple Philibert was unmoved and the reports were held until yesterday when Holness decided to table the PICA report.
Quizzed by Paulwell as to whether the opinion from the attorney general was received by Parliament, Holness said the House had not received the legal advice.
The PICA and NWA audit reports are listed in the Auditor General’s Annual Report which was tabled in Parliament in January. A third report from the AuGD has been in the possession of the Speaker for weeks also.