5 weeks ago, 7News told you about the back and forth between the Opposition Party and the Government of Belize about whether or not the Public Accounts Committee, which hasn't met in years, and which is the only committee chaired by an Opposition member, should or should not be held in public.
According to the PUP, the GOB doesn't want these meetings public because it would expose perceived mismanagement of finances, while the GOB says that the PUP members are attempting to grand-stand and don't want to follow the procedure of the standing orders.
Well, today was scheduled date for the next adjournment of the meeting, and we note that it's now official; all meetings will be held in public.
7News spoke to the Chairman of the Committee, Julius Espat, who told us the Commitee had a very good meeting.
According to Espat, all 5 members were present and they all agreed that the meetings will be held public from here except the first two. Espat told us that at these 2, the members need to sit down as a team to decide on rules and regulations because public meetings have never been held with regularity before.
Espat said that the Committee will be inviting Jose Coye and others for historical view on how to actually put it in place.
Espat told us finally that everything will be public, except meetings which the committee will designate as "special". Those meetings will be decidedly private when the committee members believe that it is in the national interest to hold them privately.
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