By Staff Writer
The government-sponsored motion recently passed to remove Alliance For Change (AFC) Executive Member, David Patterson as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman was not birthed out of malice, but rather, on the cornerstone of what is morally right and just, says Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall.
During his live show, “Issues in the News”, last evening, the AG said that the motion was not tabled because of allegations leveled against Patterson for acquiring gifts totaling millions of dollars through agencies that fell under his purview as the Public Infrastructure Minister between 2015 and 2020. Patterson is currently before the court for this matter.
Nandlall said that the motion was brought because Patterson is fingered in several allegations of wrongdoing in the Auditor General’s 2016 Report, which is currently being scrutinised by the Committee. The Minister pointed out that Patterson as the Chairman of the PAC cannot “preside over his own interrogation”. Indeed, the PAC has the power to conduct forensic oversight into the financial transactions of the government and to provide, where necessary, actions to remedy acts and attempts to commit financial transgressions.
“How can he chair? There are several transactions in the 2016 report that implicate Patterson in wrongdoing. How can he chair the Committee? How can you be a judge in your own cause? How can you investigate yourself?” Nandlall queried.
He added, “No matter how you explain this: that it is wrong on every level – it is wrong morally, it is wrong politically, it is wrong democratically, it is wrong constitutionally, it is wrong legally – these guys don’t get it. They make it into a political fight. This has nothing to do with politics.”
The Minister went on to debunk statements made by Opposition parliamentarians, who allege that the government’s motion seeks to replace Patterson with Liberty and Justice Party (LJP)Member, Lennox Shuman, who also is an Opposition Member with close ties to the governing administration.
“I want to emphasise that the PPP does not want the Chairmanship, and Shuman can’t be the Chairman [because] he’s not even a member of the Committee…So I hear them say that Shuman will be the Chairman. We don’t want Shuman to be the Chairman, we want the main opposition to chair it, but not Patterson because he’s a villain in the report. The report implicates him. How can he preside over his own interrogation as investigation? And it is as simple as that!”
