GERMANY: The Sarawak Public Accounts Committee (PAC)’s visit to the House of Parliament, Republic of Germany marked the first time it has visited a Parliament House which has a different system of government outside the Commonwealth countries.
During the benchmarking visit, the Sarawak PAC members, led by chairman Razaili Gapor, who is also Beting Maro assemblyman, were briefed by the Bundestag of the Republic of Germany Martin Gerster who is the chairman of the Auditing Committee on the roles and function of their committee and exchanging information on the check and balance processes for both houses of the legislature.
“The Sarawak PAC’s visit to the House of Parliament took place last Sept 25, while the meeting with the German’s Audit and Budget Committee took place on Sept 27.
“In doing so, it will allow the Sarawak PAC members to understand, identify and highlight the key differences between the parliamentary system model of the state and Germany particularly in the function of the Audit and Budget Committee,” Sarawak PAC said in its press release.
Sarawak PAC added the benchmarking visit was among the opportunities for ongoing interaction between the members and to understand more on the function of the Audit and Budget Committees of the Bundestag on how the money of the Federation was spent and scrutinised.
Among members of Sarawak PAC who joined the visit were Ir Lo Khere Chiang (Batu Kitang assemblyman) Miro Simuh (Serembu assemblyman), director of Integrity and Ombudsman Unit Semawi Mohamad, Sarawak Accountant General Elean Masa’at and director of Sarawak Internal Audit Unit Toieyah Tioh.
