No fear of Public Accounts Committee report, says Sealy

ACTING Prime Minister Richard Sealy is not afraid of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has been made public.

While the report for 2013-2018 raises concern about the circumstances surrounding the financing of Government housing projects, Sealy said he can defend any action that Government has taken to ensure that ordinary Barbadians get a set of keys to open doors to homes they can call their own.

“I can defend anything in there, any reference to Valery. There are 80 households, people who actually got keys living in Valery. I didn’t have to fool anybody or tell any lie. I am not scared of the PAC report.”

“I just did not like the idea, of a Chairman of a Parliamentary Committee giving the impression by notifying the House [of Assembly], of her desire to lay a document, that somehow the Public Accounts Committee as a group had agreed, or disagreed, nothing of the sort. You agreed to a final draft on Wednesday night, and Friday morning you want to make it a document of the House . . .,” he said.

The Member of Parliament for St Michael South Central spoke about the report last Saturday, as he delivered remarks at the opening of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) St Michael East Constituency Office.

Last Friday, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, the Chairman of the PAC, attempted to lay the report in Parliament. However, those sitting on the other side blocked the attempt by objecting, leading to the Opposition Leader hosting a press conference.

Sealy said he got up and spoke out against the draft becoming a document of the House of Assembly, because he believes that members of the PAC should have had the benefit to study the report which contains a number of “serious allegations”.

“But this is what [Former Prime Minister] Owen Arthur spoke about. If you want a little something to do tonight before you go to bed, there is something called YouTube. Go on YouTube and see if you could find the Owen Arthur statement on the Maria Agard affair, when he basically said what he had to say about Mia Mottley . . .,” he said. (AH)