Bermuda made its mark at a Commonwealth workshop in Trinidad and Tobago — but not for the right reasons.

Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards went to the two-day event for members of public accounts committees (PACs) and said fellow participants were "pretty much astonished" to hear that the Island's PAC still meets in secret.

"Everybody else there, they do it in public," said Mr. Richards. "The conference talked about having publicity ranging from having reporters there to having it televised or on the radio. There is a wide variety of treatments. I think we are at the tail end."

Mr. Richards, chairman of Bermuda's PAC, the cross-party parliamentary committee tasked with scrutinising the spending of public money, said fellow committee member and Government backbencher Walter Lister was also at the workshop.

"He made a case that this was a work in progress," said Mr. Richards. "That they are aware it's an issue and that they are aware that it needs to be fixed. There was no timetable. It's a work in progress and one day it will be fixed."

Bermuda's PAC, made up of three Government MPs and two from the Opposition, agreed unanimously in 2004 that it should open its doors to the public — but five years later it still meets in secret.

The decision to allow it to meet publicly must come from the parliamentary Rules and Privileges Committee, which is in the process of reviewing whether all parliamentary committees should be opened up.

House of Assembly Speaker Stanley Lowe, chairman of the Rules and Privileges Committee, did not respond to requests for an update this week.

The Royal Gazette understands that the committee is waiting on a rewrite of the House of Assembly Rules, undertaken by a subcommittee.

Mr. Richards said he discovered at the December workshop at the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, which was for members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, that senators are often represented on PACs, unlike in Bermuda.

The Opposition MP said he was still finding his feet as PAC chairman but hoped to speed up the process and get it to meet and report back to MPs more regularly.

"One of the issues we have had is actually getting a quorum," he said, adding that by the time the committee filed its reports to Parliament they were usually "ancient history".

"That really is a problem," he said. "I agree that it not only has to do its work, it has to be seen to be doing its work and has to be seen to be doing its work in a timely fashion."