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That's the report which was released earlier this year in which the Auditor General flags several areas of public spending. In today's meeting, the Auditor General was supposed to have appeared before the Committee to give testimony. That couldn't happen because none of the Government's 4 PAC members showed up. We were in Belmopan to speak with Chairman Julius Espat, who jumped on the opportunity to harshly criticize the Government for the canceled meeting. Here's what he and fellow member Kareem Musa had to say:

Hon Julius Espat - Chairman, PAC
"This is the second meeting that was canceled. The first one, the Auditor General did not show. This one, the 4 members of the Committee on the Government's side have not shown themselves here. It just proves what we have been saying for the longest. Government will do absolutely everything in their power to not have the people have access to information, and dig into the files, which are blatant. And it's blatant because it shows how our monies are being mismanaged at all levels. So, this is not a surprise to us, but we are duly elected area representatives. We are parliamentarians. We were appointed to this Committee by our party leader, and we are doing our job."

Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"What questions would you have wanted to put to the Auditor General today, if the meeting had gone forward?"

Hon. Julius Espat
"About maybe a million, where to start? You see, I am not interested in going on any witch hunt. My interest is to find out if the system is working or not. And it's clear that it's not working. So, the questions would have been simple. What is your role as Auditor General? To, what extent can you have? What is the role of the Accountant General? Why is it that you are saying the numbers in the books are not enough to have you declare that it's fair and good? How can you just audit one ministry with one specific purchase, when you have the Ministry of Finance that is responsible for all the expenditure? Why have you not yet audited the Ministry of Finance? Why is it that you have audited a contracts? One single contract given out; you have thousands of contract, why have you not audited all of these? Why is it that the Auditor General's office in your report is saying that you're not equipped? Why is it that you are saying that you need a positive relationship with the public accounts committee? Why are all these things there but nobody seems to - I think we understand, but it hasn't gotten into our soul yet."

Hon. Kareem Musa - Member, PAC
"This is my first time serving on the PAC. I know that Hon. Julius has been down this path before. I am not surprised by the actions and the absence of these 4 government officials, these 4 ministers, who they came to power on this platform of transparency and accountability. But, their absence today speaks volumes."

We contacted Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber for comment today. He's the ranking member from the UDP Government who sits on the Public Accounts Committee. Faber told us that while Espat complained today that the Government's representatives were absent, Espat is the one who canceled the October 12th meeting without any notice to, or consultation of the other members of the committee.

Faber told us that there were was no attempt by the Government's representatives to stay away from today's meeting. The members were unable to attend due to illness of two ministers. He said that the Government representatives tried to deputize persons to substitute in for today's meeting, but it did not work out as planned. He stressed that the Government is not trying to sabotage the PAC meetings.

The next PAC meeting is scheduled for November 9.