Former Finance Minister Grant Gibbons has questioned the PLP's commitment to opening up the parliamentary committee which scrutinises public spending, pointing out that it rejected such a move in 2004.

Dr. Gibbons was responding to a claim made earlier this week by Government backbencher Walter Lister, who said his party has always felt that opening up Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meetings was a "healthy thing" to do.

Bermuda is one of the few democracies in the world to have a PAC which meets behind closed doors and one of the aims of The Royal Gazette's A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign is to change that.

Mr. Lister, who sits on the PAC, told this newspaper it was likely to be opened up "in a very short period of time".

Shadow Education Minister Dr. Gibbons said yesterday that was difficult to swallow when an attempt in 2004 was knocked back by the PLP caucus.

A report submitted to the House of Assembly by the PAC in July 2004 shows that members unanimously agreed that "open meetings would increase transparency and improve the effectiveness" of the committee.

The minutes say the committee — made up of three Government and two Opposition MPs — had been debating the issue since 1999 and felt it was time to follow other jurisdictions such as Canada, the UK, Jamaica, Cayman and Australia, in opening up the PAC. The Auditor General also backed the idea.

Dr. Gibbons said the matter was taken up by Parliament's Rules and Privileges Committee and Alex Scott, who was then Premier, agreed to put it to PLP members.

"The answer came back no from his caucus," said Dr. Gibbons. "His colleagues did not support it and there it has languished ever since."

He said Mr. Lister's perception may have been that the PLP supported the idea but it was not the reality.

Dr. Gibbons, who was chairman of the PAC when Shadow Finance Minister, said committee reports from 1996 and 1998 made no reference to the issue of opening up meetings and the subject was not "on the radar screen" before 1999.

It began to be discussed, he said, after he attended a conference in Canada and discovered that the practice in Bermuda of having its PAC meet privately was very unusual.

The UBP MP said he would welcome any fresh move to open up the PAC, adding: "It's been a very long time coming. The time for just talking about opening up this committee has surely passed.

"We are way beyond best practice in other jurisdictions we like to compare ourselves to. I think patience has been exhausted at this point."

Mr. Lister said last night: "We only rejected it because we had a timetable to bring things. We have an agenda and we will bring it when the agenda dictates.

"It may have been put aside at that point in time but I would like to think that progress has been made. My position is that I support the progress. I don't even see that (rejection in 2004) as a setback.

"The PLP has an agenda and all the policies will be brought forth as the agenda dictates."

A statement posted on the PLP website on Monday about transparency said: "We know our principles and we're taking the time necessary to translate them into sound policy."