Committee Clerk of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Expenditure Committee (PEC), Mr. Heston Rence was part of the UNDP office of Papua New Guinea as a resource person to do a presentation on the work of Parliamentary Committees at the Bougainville House of Representatives (BHOR) Committee workshop held via virtual sessions on Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 October 2022.
His presentation was specifically on the “Role and Function of Public Expenditure Committee (PEC) and Public Accounts Committee (PEC) in the Solomon Islands”
UNDP Programme Analyst, Velea Vagi said Mr. Rence’s vast experience and invaluable presentation as a Committee Clerk for the PAC and PEC in the Solomon Islands Parliament will certainly improve the committee system of the Bougainville House of Representatives.
The Committee system of the Solomon Islands Parliament has been highly regarded as one of the most effective in the region.
A similar workshop was conducted in Port Moresby recently in July, which found that Committee systems of the PNG National Parliament were lacking and needing improvement and this may be the same case for Bougainville, Velea Vagi said.
The idea for Mr. Rence to share his experiences as a secretariat for PAC and PEC in the National Parliament of Solomon Islands will be a bonus for the Bougainville House of Representatives.
Joining him in the two days zoom session is Clara Hawks of the New South Wales Parliament including some of her colleagues.
Other topics covered in the two-day virtual sessions include;
1. Role of Parliament and Committees in Bougainville constitutional democracy
2. Role of Committees in undertaking oversight of the Government
3. Role of Parliament and Committees in reviewing and passing legislation
4. Role of Parliament and Committees in reviewing and passing the budget
Facilitators and speakers of the virtual sessions were highly resourced persons from the PNG National Parliament, New South Wales Parliament, Fiji Parliament, UNDP, and Constitutional Office reps of PNG and Bougainville.