Hearings of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) cannot be done in front of the camera as it is contrary to Article 85 of the Standing Orders of Parliament, Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee said today.

Kiandee said the article states that any evidence taken before any select committee and documents presented to such a committee shall not be published by any member of such committee or by any other person before the committee presents its report to the Dewan Rakyat.

NONE“However, it is up to the minister to apply for and get approval from the Dewan Rakyat speaker (for the live coverage),” he told Bernama today.  

Kiandee (left) was asked to comment on the suggestion by Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek for live television coverage of the PAC hearings.  

Shabery said yesterday that Radio-Television Malaysia (RTM) was prepared to provide live coverage of the hearings if allowed to do so.  

He said there was a need to change the assumption that PAC hearings were confidential and only the chairperson was allowed to issue a statement, and he felt that this could be done through live television coverage.

Shabery had said he would apply to the Dewan Rakyat to allow RTM to telecast live his session with the PAC over the RM1.6 million payment to South Korean pop groups for their performance at last year’s National Youth Day celebrations.

(The 2012 report of the Auditor-General had stated that the Youth and Sports Ministry spent RM1.6 million to bring in three South Korean pop groups for the National Youth Day celebrations last year when it was claimed that the cost had been covered by sponsors.)

NONEMeanwhile, PAC chairperson and MP for Pulai Nur Jazlan Mohamed welcomed the proposal by Shabery (right) to have PAC hearings covered live, saying this would provide a clear picture to the people of what the PAC did in its investigations pertaining to the Auditor-General’s Report.

“However, the proposal has to be approved by the speaker of the Dewan Rakyat as it contravenes Article 85 of the Standing Orders.

“As for the PAC, we have no qualms (about the live coverage). It will be good for the PAC, especially when many are of the assumption that the PAC is a toothless tiger,” Nur Jazlan said in a statement.

‘Live coverage practised in other countries’

He said live coverage of PAC proceedings was not something new because it was practised in other countries of the commonwealth, such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

The PAC, Nur Jazlan added, played a vital role as a channel for the people to scrutinise the weaknesses and shortcomings in government administration and in government-linked companies for improvement of services.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang had said in his blog last Friday that the parliamentary rules should be amended to allow Shabery’s testimony before the PAC and future hearings to be broadcast to the public.

- Bernama