Team Herald
PANJIM: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Undertaking Committee (PUC) meetings convened by Congress MLA Altone D’Costa and Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao on Monday have come under scrutiny, as the term of both panels ended in December 2024.
It remains to be seen what action Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar will initiate against the Secretary (Legislature) and CAG representatives, who participated in the meetings.
The Speaker had constituted various House Committees and notified them via Bulletin No 18 (Part 1) on January 19, 2023. The tenure of all these Committees was for the year 2023-2024. This included the panel of Presiding Members, the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), the Estimates Committee, and the two most important committees: the PAC and the PUC, each comprising seven members.
The PAC and PUC have faced criticism from all quarters for their failure to prepare and submit reports to the Goa Legislative Assembly. Quepem MLA D’Costa, who headed the PAC, missed an opportunity to scrutinise various CAG reports within the stipulated time and also ‘ignored’ investigating scams during the BJP government’s last 10 years. PUC Chairman Alemao similarly failed to investigate the Smart City scam, illegalities in the Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board (IPB) projects, and various other scams and irregularities.
Records from the Goa Legislature Department show that the PAC and PUC did not meet even once from January 2023 to September 2023. The PAC held only eight meetings from September 2023 onwards, with a gap of 10 months between January 2024 and October 2024. On the other hand, the PUC met on nine occasions, holding its first meeting in September, then having a gap of four months between May and August 2024.
This data contrasts sharply with the claims made by D’Costa and Alemao that the committees were meeting regularly.
When contacted, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, who was the PAC Chairman and PUC Chairman between 2014 and 2022, informed that he had prepared the Twenty-Second Report of the PUC for the years 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18. The same was also listed in the business of January 18, 2023. “I fell ill and could not attend the session, so the reports were not tabled,” he said, adding, “It is a continuous process. The new committee under Yuri Alemao can adopt my reports and table them in the Assembly. It is wrong to say that I did not prepare any reports.”
Former MP and BJP General Secretary Adv Narendra Sawaikar said, “Since the terms of the Public Accounts Committee and Public Undertaking Committee, as well as other House Committees, ended in 2024, the PAC and PUC cannot hold any meetings or prepare any reports now. The Speaker can extend the term or will have to reconstitute all the committees.”