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Strategies for safety of public property

Strategies to minimise all types of abuse of public property and finance are strongly suggested by the Institute of Human Rights Program for the Protection of Public Property in a review addressed to the President, members of the next Parliament, political leaders, bureaucrats and the general public.

PPP/IHR which aims at creating greater awareness and lobbying for strengthening institutions dealing with public finance, yesterday called on the media, other NGOs and the general public to join the campaign for the implementation of its recommendations.

Following is a summary of the recommendations and urgent issues to be addressed, the PPP/IHR press release said:

* The Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) should be selected from and among the Members of Parliament with knowledge on public accounting, public administration and such other fields that are relevant for governing public finance.

* The Chairpersons of these two Committees should be chosen necessarily from the Opposition.

* Ministry of Finance should always be held by a Member of Parliament and not by the President.

* Secretaries of Ministries, Secretary to the President and all Heads of Department should be persons with adequate administrative/finance knowledge and background.

* Standing Orders should be amended, among other things, to enable the PAC and COPE to obtain services of a permanent panel of independent experts on any technical matter. These experts should be answerable to Committees and to the Parliament.

* The public should be given access to the proceedings of the Committee sessions and they should be free to report their observations subject to specified but limited exceptions.

* The minutes of the Committees should be available to the public and should be published as sessional papers and they should be published by the Committees regularly, independent of the Ministry instructions.

* A mechanism has to be introduced to enable the general public to forward complaints relating to public finance to the Public Accounts Committee and Committee on Public Enterprises.

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