IT was truly like a cabal, when the Finance Committee of the Parliament met last Wednesday, to rubber stamp government’s request for an addition $4 billion, in supplementary spending, for the 2006-2207 finance year.

Chairman of the committee, Prime Minister Patrick Manning dished up the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) in just less than two hours as he dismissed their concerns about excessive spending and accountability.

To make matters worse, since 15 members of Manning’s Cabinet are Senators, there was very little chance that any of the questions posed by the Opposition MPs could have been answered.

PENNELOPE BECKLES

Committee meetings, which are usually held about three times in a fiscal year, are held in camera.

The media is not allowed to record or report or analyse anything that happens at the Finance Committee which is made up of all 36 members of the Lower House.

The notes are never ever recorded for Hansard or made public in any way.

It’s a straight case of members alone sitting together with the technical staff of the Ministry of Finance and treating genuine questions with utter disrespect.

“Three-quarters of the Cabinet are in the Senate.

“You must remember that of the 15 government Senators all but one is a minister,” a senior parliamentary source told TnT Mirror on Thursday morning.

“So it begs the question; who really is there at the time to answer the questions raised by the Opposition?

“This is just a rubber stamp process, because it is so blatant that everything the Opposition asks, the government is ill prepared to provide the answers.

“The Prime Minister as chairman was only concerned with dispending opposition questions as quickly as he could so as to move onto the next expenditure item.

“He obviously considers the Opposition questions to be annoying and treats them as such.

“Indeed, as far as last Wednesday’s meeting of the Finance Committee went, the only minister who was prepared and willing to provide answers was Minister of Public Utilities and the Environment Pennelope Beckles,” our source continued.

“Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert was decent enough to give an undertaking to provide the answers to questions in respect to that ministry.

“There is need for transparency which falls in line with recent trends where the meetings of joint select committees of Parliament have been open to the public.

“After all, this is government spending and the chairman should not revel in the fact that he’s leading a cabal that spending the country’s money black is white.

“Even the budget debate is a farce, because the various ministries hardly ever give account of what they are doing.

“The simple majority which any government has ensures that the Finance Committee will approve whatever the government proposes.

“So much so that the opinions and views of Opposition on government expenditure has always been totally ignored by executives.

“Nobody sees what’s going on there. Nobody hears, nobody knows the concerns and the answers given by the government, if any.

“This government is especially guilty of ignoring the questions raised by the Opposition in Finance Committee.

“They never have answers, and that is the sad truth and we get the impression that Prime Minister Manning particularly enjoys his arrogant dismissal of all attempts to get him to account to the people.

Last Wednesday’s Finance Committee meeting was the third since the 2006-2007 Budget was read in Parliament.

The committee met on two previous occasions: to put money in the Revenue Stabilisation Fund and it also met after the budget debate to approve the appropriations.