The Progressive Labour Party failed to show up at this week's meeting of Bermuda's Public Accounts Committee.

Chairman Bob Richards was forced to go it alone with United Bermuda Party colleague Patricia Gordon-Pamplin to investigate the spending of public money on initiatives like the Police/court building project.

According to Mr. Richards, veteran Sandys MP Walter Lister claimed he didn't think the meeting should take place, while backbencher Patrice Minors didn't attend after talking to Mr. Lister.

The PLP's third member, Zane DeSilva, can no longer sit on the PAC because he is now a Minister — with no replacement apparently in place.

Shadow Finance Minister Mr. Richards said the meeting was vital because the committee is still catching up on material brought to light a year ago by former Auditor General Larry Dennis.

He said the urgency was underlined Friday when the PAC had to add another item to its agenda: the "serious internal control deficiencies" in the handling of capital projects highlighted by Mr. Dennis' successor Heather Jacob Matthews.

Mr. Richards told The Royal Gazette: "I called the meeting; Mr. Lister said he was going to be off the Island.

"He indicated to me that he didn't think we could have a meeting because they were down one person because Mr. DeSilva is now a Minister.

"But that decision wasn't his. It was mine. Mrs. Minors made her schedule on the basis of talking to Mr. Lister. When we told her the meeting was still on she was in a quandary.

"As far as I was concerned, there was a principle that I was working on that it was important for us to continue our business. Just because they are down one man doesn't mean we can't meet."

He said the group was able to proceed on a normal basis and achieve what he had hoped for.

Regarding the Auditor General's report released Friday, he said: "There will be other reports we are going to be charged with investigating. We are behind in our work. I'm determined to have this committee do its job with or without the cooperation of the current members.

"I'm hopeful that we do it with the cooperation of all members, but if that's not forthcoming then we go ahead anyway."

During Friday's Motion to Adjourn, Mr. DeSilva complained that Mr. Richards had spoken to this newspaper earlier in the week about the PLP's likely non-attendance.

"Please stop running to the daily paper and saying things that cause problems," the Minister without Portfolio told the House of Assembly.

"I can say as a former member, there were times when we wanted to hold a meeting and [Mr. Richards] couldn't come because he was off the Island.

"We are very busy people. We have a lot of work to do."

Mr. Lister said: "I said that I was away, and at the same time, I added that Mrs. Minors was unavailable.

"When I looked in the press, I found out he was going ahead with the meeting. They like talk shops. All it was, was a talk shop."

Mr. Richards then responded: "PAC is a very important watchdog. Quite frankly, in a perfect world, the PAC would never make the news. In fact, it shouldn't have any work. At this time, the PAC has a great deal of work to do.

"I thought it would be a good idea to have a meeting while the session was in. [Mr. Lister] advised me: 'You will not have a meeting.' It was at that point I decided a meeting would take place."

Mrs. Minors indicated she would not be commenting publicly and has shared her view with Speaker Stanley Lowe.