IT NOW appears that the Government, on the one hand, is defaulting on paying its bills while, on the other, it continues to take on financial obligations without the approval of Parliament as required by the Constitution.
The Government, it seems, is in the same mental state as a person who is unable to pay off credit card debts when they become due but who, nevertheless, keeps using the credit card to purchase goods and services, incurring late payment fees in the process. At one level this is a symptom of panic and indiscipline, but in the case of government it is an underlying arrogance which reflects a belief that since it has been elected by the people it can breach the Constitution with impunity. This in turn leads to the dangerous practice of retrospective ratification of what was initially an illegal action, an immoral approach to governance.
We are dismayed by information in the Auditor General's report being examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the Ministry of Finance, on a regular basis, is using 'comfort letters' which are in effect government guarantees without first getting the approval of Parliament. More specifically, in 2003, a loan for $225 million was made from the National Insurance Fund to the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) to finance two information technology projects on the basis that if the FCJ was unable to service the loan it would be repaid by the Ministry of Finance. A previous loan to the FCJ in a similar amount was made on the same basis and neither of these guarantees was approved by the House of Representative as required by law.
Mr. Audley Shaw, Chairman of the PAC, has now rightly called for the Ministry of Finance to give a total accounting of all outstanding guarantees and comfort letters which bypassed Parliament and has called an emergency meeting of PAC for March 22 to consider the amounts involved.
The constitutional requirement for all expenditures of public funds to be approved by Parliament is a fundamental principle of good governance, not least of all because it is a method of keeping the public informed of Government's priorities and/or extravagancies as the case may be. To try to bypass Parliament through the back door is unworthy of those who have asked the public to entrust them with power. The practice is a dishonourable one and should cease immediately.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
