With even minimum political and public will, a new Facebook group could be used to steer the Public Accounts Committee past the official bureaucracy that has prevented even a single sitting to date. The following is the outline for the structure and working of that group.
Membership
Official Members:
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Public Accounts Committee Members
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Auditor General
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Ombudsman of Belize
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Clerk of the National Assembly
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3-5 board members
Invited Members:
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Minimum of 1 representative from each media house
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Minimum of 1 representative from the council of churches
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Tertiary Level Student Body Presidents
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National Trade Union Congress
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Senators
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Cabinet Members
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All elected representatives
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All known NGO & Activist Community Agents
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Representatives from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)
Extended Members:
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Any and all citizens of Belize
Process:
Submissions
- Any official, invited, or extended member of the group or any member of the general public may submit an incident for review, in a description not exceeding 150 words via
- Direct Post to Group
- Email to Group
- SMS to Group
Responses
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Any member of the group may like or comment (recommended maximum of 150 words) on any submission at any time.
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Within the first 2 weeks of each month, each member of the Public Accounts Committee must provide a minimum 150 word response to the top 10 submissions of the previous month.
Reporting
- Every 3 months, concerns and responses will be compiled and distributed to
- FIU
- Amnesty International
- Wiki Leaks
- Local Media
- Regional Media
- International Media
- Transparency International
- Auditor General
- Ministry of Finance
- Governor General
- Elected Representatives
- At every official meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, a summary of the latest reports will be read, and most public pressing concerns highlighted.
Further Recommendations:
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Committee should host regular meetings no less than every 3 months
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Meetings in the House should be recorded.
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Videos and transcripts should be shared to the group so that members may review at leisure.