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    "id": 426535,
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    "content": "therefore, does not mean that a witness to one committee should appear before every committee on the same matter. The Standing Orders are supposed to guide us on who is supposed to appear and give evidence in what committee. Hon. Members, I guided on 5th December, 2013 that if the PAC was to engage a State corporation then the principal witness should be the Accounting Officer of the parent Ministry. On the other hand, in executing their mandate under Standing Order No.216, if a Cabinet Secretary or a Principal Secretary is required to appear before a Departmental Committee; such a committee should look into all matters falling within the Ministry and all its departments. In the course of inquiring into the matters under the Ministry and its departments, the Ministry is not stopped from delving into matters of mandate, management, activities, administration, operations or estimates of State corporations under a Ministry as provided for under Standing Order No.216(5)(a). However, the interpretation of that Standing Order limits the jurisdiction to the confines of Ministries and their departments. It, therefore, follows that the carrying out of that mandate must be tied to the context of that particular Ministry and its departments. Hon. Members, let me now turn to the second question relating to the usage of the words “examination of” as compared to the words “investigate, inquire into all matters” and the word “study” as used in Standing Order Nos.206 and 216 respectively. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word “examine” as follows: “to look at; inspect or scrutinize carefully or in detail; to investigate.” On the other hand, the word “investigate” is defined as: “to inquire into a situation or a problem thoroughly in order to discover facts”. The word “study” is defined thus: “to apply the mind to learning or understanding of a subject”. In Standing Order No.206, which provides for the mandate of the PIC, the words “examination of” are used consistently in all paragraphs. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word “examination” can be used interchangeably with the word “investigate” which also means “to inquire into a situation or a problem thoroughly in order to discover facts.” Without proceeding further with the usages of these words, it is worth noting that assigning meaning to words is not as crucial as determining their application. In this regard, there is no doubt that by the application of the usage of these words in the Standing Orders and the operation of the State Corporations Act, and the Public Audit Act the PIC has limited mandate. Not only is the mandate limited to oversight of workings of public investments, but the exercise of that mandate is mainly limited to State corporations as corporate entities embodying public investments. Since examination is a process of finding out and not a result; the mandate is further limited to the availability of a report either by the Auditor-General or other competent authority. Where a report is not available, the Committee can only report to the House after a special report by the Auditor-General is prepared. On the other hand, the mandates of the Departmental Committees are, indeed, very wide. To no other group of committees has the House delegated the functions of investigating, inquiring into all matters and even studying. However, committees tend to concentrate on the traditional and seemingly populist matters and overlook others. If all committees chose to go for the lesser mandate, then who will do the wider business that the House has delegated to the Committees? Who will study, assess, or analyse the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}