THE Public Accounts Committee will commence hearings on the 2018 Appropriation Bill 2018 with line Ministries as of tomorrow.
The much awaited Bill, has been tabled in Parliament on Monday 12th March 2018.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Douglas Ete commended the government for fulfilling its responsibility.
However, he also cautioned the government on the time required for the Committee to diligently scrutiny the budget.
The PAC Chairman highlighted that this budget is quite a significant one, as it is the last budget before the House dissolves.
Given that the budget documents were brought in parts through last week and over the weekend, the Chairman emphasizes that his members ought to be briefed properly before seeing all the line ministries and their subsidiaries.
Mr Ete reiterated that this is a necessary part of the oversight process, as the Committee is obliged to table and inform Parliament on its findings and recommendations.
Therefore his Committee must be accorded ample time of at least two weeks to fulfil their Constitutional and Legislative duty.
The Committee has written to the Prime Minister to further adjourn Parliament, when it resumes on 19th March.
It was also understood that the National Parliament of Solomon Islands Parliamentary Budget Team has been joined by seven searchers from across several pacific parliaments, to provide support on the overall reviewing of the national budget.
This UNDP Pacific Parliamentary Effectiveness Initiative engages the participation of peer parliaments namely; the New South Wales Parliament, the Federal Parliament of Australia, the New Zealand House of Representative, the Legislative Assembly of Tonga and the Parliament of Republic of Fiji.
The team is due to leave at the end of this week.