The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the State legislative Assembly has expressed its discontent over the Chief Secretary not attending its meeting on Friday. The PAC, headed by its Chairman and leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, expressed displeasure over Chief Secretary GC Pati’s non-appearance as the latter did not intimate the committee about his inability to be present at the meeting in writing as is the norm. Instead, he had sent his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to convey his message.
Both Opposition and ruling party members were peeved over the fact that the Chief Secretary chose to communicate this through a messenger instead of a written communiqué. They cautioned him against repeating this in future, sources said.
The PAC meeting had been convened to discuss the action taken on the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the activities of various departments from 1997-98 to 2012-13 as the Government had not apprised the PAC of the steps taken on it.
The PAC, as pre rule, reviews the action taken on CAG report within three months of its tabling in the state Assembly. PAC members Ananta Das, Naba Kishore Das, Chiranjib Biswal, Sameer Das, Pramila Mallik, Saroj Samal and Rabi Narayan Mohapatra were present at the meeting.