Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Mohd Yusof (above) has reiterated his support to open up Public Accounts Committee hearings to the public on a case-to-case basis.

This was after deputy PAC chairperson Wong Kah Woh filed a motion yesterday to amend the standing orders to allow for public hearings.

However as noted by Wong, Ariff said the Parliament (Power and Privileges) Act also had a provision that limits public hearings and which thus needs to be amended.

"But the idea is clear, we want to open the proceedings. Perhaps the public will be interested to listen, view, even contribute.

"At the moment, I need to think of the alternatives. The general principle should be confidential plus possibility for opening up the proceeding. Or as some countries have done, make the proceeding open subject to the exceptions," Ariff told reporters after a press conference in Parliament today.

Wong yesterday said the PAC aimed to open up hearings except for those involving security matters.

Standing Order 85 and Section 9(m) of the Parliament (Power and Privileges) Act both prevent any evidence presented before any committee to be made public before the report is tabled, and this needs to be suspended or amended to allow for public PAC hearings.

Researchers needed

Ariff also raised the need for Parliament to have more researchers than the 13 that it has currently.

He said Australia, for example, has 80 researchers to cater for lawmakers.

"Parliament is a place where many topics are discussed. We really need persons who have real expertise in several areas to provide info and data to the MPs.

"They don't cater only to MPs from the government but even for MPs from the opposition have resorted to local research officers as well," the Dewan Rakyat speaker said.

"If you want to have a world standard, 13 is not a good number […] we are way behind. Many countries have more researchers than us," he said.