The Public Accounts Committee is to begin holding public meetings on the Auditor General’s Special Report on the Misuse of Public Funds this month.“You should stay tuned because we are going to be holding some public meetings where we will be questioning some of the individuals that have been associated with some of these things,” Shadow Finance Minister and PAC Chairman Bob Richards told a town-hall meeting last night.Mr Richards was responding to a question from a woman who asked when the public will be told about the “misappropriation of public funds”.He warned that Bermuda did not have the proper institutions in place “to deal with this on a daily basis, like they have in a lot of other countries”.“We haven’t been faced with this before. But we just have to face up to it.“The Auditor General has written a number of reports which are very concerning to us and I’m sure, to you, and they deserve our attention.”In January Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews released a scathing report a week ago highlighting two instances where she said public funds were inappropriately spent.One case involved a “fundamental conflict of interest” in which the government-owned Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC) paid more than $160,000 in consultancy fees to the chairman and deputy chairman of its own board.The other matter concerned more than $30,000 in public funds spent on the private legal fees of former Premier Ewart Brown and current Deputy Premier Derrick Burgess.Mr Richards pledged that the PAC would look into it as a matter or priority and subpoena witnesses if necessary.Last night, he told The Royal Gazette that the PAC had met several times and had gathered “a lot of documents”.“I am very hopeful that in a few days, we will have everything and then we will conduct a series of public meetings,” he said.“I’m hoping to have at least one, maybe two (meetings) before the end of April.”He said the PAC is likely to call all the people named in the Special Report.“And there are other people who are not named in that report who we would want to speak to as well. Particularly the BLDC thing who have not been named but were part of the companies activity.”He added that it was hoped that the PAC would conclude its work before the House goes into summer recess.But he agreed that the work would stop if the election is called.