Long-dormant legislative watchdog meets

The house of assemblys new public accounts committee met this morning, ending a long period of inactivity that saw members convene in private just once over the previous 18 months.

Liberal MHA Jim Bennett was elected chair of the committee. Tory MHA David Brazil will be deputy chair.

The committee plans to meet with Auditor General Wayne Loveys for a briefing on his most recent report to the legislature.

PAC members will then set an agenda for issues to be reviewed and a timetable to hold meetings.

For the first time, there will be a New Democrat on the committee rookie Straits-White Bay North MHA Christopher Mitchelmore.

Dormant committee

AsCBC News reported in February, the PACwhich is supposed to act as a watchdog over government spendinghas lapsed into dormancy in recent years.

The committee has not met in public in six years. And the number of private meetings has also ebbed in recent times.

The PAC met just once, behind closed doors, in 2011. The previous vice-chair of the PAC, Tory John Dinn, received more than $10,000 for attending just one in-camera meeting.

The practice in Newfoundland and Labrador contrasts sharply with that in other provinces, where the committees meet often, and in public.

And the lack of activity ignored a key recommendation in the Green Report, which examined the legislature in the wake of the house of assembly spending scandal.

Chief Justice Derek Green wrote he was "convinced" that an active PAC could play "an important oversight role in relation to the financial affairs of the legislature."

The chief justices 2007 report noted that the committee was "virtually moribund."

Green said he was hopeful that "the PAC may develop a more active and constructive role as a government spending watchdog."

But that didn't happen.

Thursday's committee meeting was held in-camera.

There is no word, as yet, on whether future PAC meetings will be held in public.