Delegates Enhance Technical Skills, Develop Parliamentary Capacity

The Commonwealth Association of Public Accounts Committee (CAPAC) has been working with Pacific parliaments and with our development partners to strengthen a parliament’s oversight functions of the executive.
The statement was made by the Speaker of Parliament Ratu Epeli Nailatikau during the opening of the CAPAC Pacific Regional workshop at the Holiday Inn in Suva on Tuesday.
Delegates from Australia, the autonomous region of Bougainville, Fiji, Kiribati, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, United Kingdom and Vanuatu are participating in the three-day workshop.
The meeting aims to enhance technical skills and develop parliamentary capacity for effective financial scrutiny including strengthening networks and contacts in the region.
Ratu Epeli said the workshop demonstrated the commitment of the Commonwealth Association to promote the democratic values to which we all subscribe.
“A vision which seeks to invigorate and redefine the association’s position as a leader in identifying and promoting benchmarks of good governance and the enduring values of the commonwealth,” Ratu Epeli said.
“The values to which we all adhere and which have been enshrined in the commonwealth charter are democracy, rule of law, human rights, good governance, gender equality, importance of young people, protecting the environment and sustainable development goals, among others.
“These values are underpinned by the separation of powers between the three branches of government: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
“They are guarantors of the rule of law, the promotion and protection of fundamental rights and a determinant of a country’s adherence to good governance.
“Public Accounts Committees in particular need to have the means to exchange information and ideas to enable them to keep up to date with important developments, changing standards and best practices as they emerge.
“I believe that the most effective way in which the committee performance in every jurisdiction can be improved is by developing ways to exchange information,” Ratu Epeli said.
The workshop will conclude today.
Edited by Percy Kean
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