Senate Inquiry Not Done Yet, But Costs Keep Piling Up

Dean Barrow

Chairman of the Senate Special Select Committee, Aldo Salazar says there are only few witnesses left to testify before the committee and his recommendation is for an early end to the hearings.  But other members of the committee have indicated that there is still an extensive list of witnesses to be called before the panel.  Prime Minister Barrow finds himself caught in the middle, telling the media earlier today that while the inquiry hasn’t outlived its usefulness, there is still a financial cost to be born in mind.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I don’t know how much farther things can usefully go but I certainly don‘t share the views that I‘ve heard expressed in certain quarters that it‘s all been a monumental waste of time.  Not at all.  I think even from the point of view of catharsis, this was necessary and has served in fact a purpose.  Now, again I have no idea of how many more witnesses the committee intends to call.  Without knowing that I certainly am not prepared to hazard an opinion as to how much farther the inquiry should go.  I would say though that I would hope that while we don‘t want to stint on the effort to thoroughly ventilate the issue there is a cost to what is going on.  There is a cost both financially and of course of the workload for the national assembly staff.  So I would hope that there would be reasonableness on the part of the committee to do whatever more is necessary, but don‘t go beyond that because the law of diminishing returns will clearly set in and I think could become counterproductive.  We have not reached that point at all at all at this juncture but I just ask that they exercise some caution, some prudence, some reasonableness in determining how much further they want to go.”