More Public Sector Heads must Account to Parliament – PM Golding

Public Sector bodies that are not within central government will be more accountable to Parliament during the fiscal year that starts on April 1.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said this in the House on March 17 during the debate on the report of the Standing Orders Committee.
Mr Golding said, “The Public Administrations and Appropriations Committee recommended that it be made clear that all public bodies are subject to its oversight and subject to being summoned before it..the budget this year will see the beginning of a process to bring all the public bodies within the budgetary framework and to require that they be held accountable in terms of their programmes of expenditure.”
The Prime Minister also noted that the Public Sector Transformation Unit (PSTU) in his office recommended that heads of state agencies should be directly accountable to Parliament.
“In discussions that we have been having with regards to the PSTU and the programme, I have suggested that Chief Executive Officers of state agencies should be defined in such a way that they, and not their Permanent Secretaries, are held accountable. I do not think that it is fair for a PS to have to bear accountability for some executive body that functions with a highly paid Chief Executive Officer and who is sort of shielded from public accountability. Let the Executive Director or the Managing Director come and sit in the chair and answer questions,” the Prime Minister said.