Section 63: Public Accounts Committee

63. Public Accounts Committee (1) There shall be a committee to be known as the Public Accounts Committee to consist of a Chairperson to be appointed by the Chairperson and not more than 4 other Members to be elected by the Assembly. (2) The Committee shall examine the audited accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted by the Assembly to meet the public expenditure and other accounts laid before the Assembly together with the Director of Audit’s report thereon. (3) The Committee may, in the exercise of the duties mentioned above, send for persons and records, to take evidence, and to report from time to time. (4) Where the Chairperson is unable to be present at any meeting, the Committee shall elect a chairperson for the day only. (5) In discharging its duties under this Order, while examining accounts showing the appropriation of funds granted by the Assembly and such other accounts which the Assembly had referred to it, the Committee shall satisfy itself that— (a) the monies shown in the accounts as having been disbursed were legally available for, and applicable to, the services or purpose to which they have been applied or charged; (b) the expenditure conformed to the Authority which governed it; (c) every re-appropriation has been made in accordance with the provisions made in this behalf under appropriate rules; and (d) cases involving negative expenditure and financial irregularities wherever they have occurred in the financial year under study, having regard to the financial report and the estimates as approved by the Assembly, are subjected to scrutiny.