The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has responded to public criticism of the quality of its interrogations in the ongoing hearings into the Capital Hill cashgate, saying it is not a court of law.

Speaking in an interview on Monday, PAC chairperson Beatrice Mwangonde said PAC has limits, hence cannot further quiz or take to task certain stakeholders.

She said: “We understand how the public feels, but what should be known is that we had certain parameters on which to operate from and so we could not go overboard as people expected us to.

“We are not a law enforcement agency, our role was to get views from the stakeholders who are answerable to taxpayers, how they feel about [cashgate] and that is what we did.”

Recently, PAC has come under fire from the public for purportedly failing to solicit desired information from the various players under interrogation in the Capital Hill cashgate.

But Mwangonde said the public should bear in mind that there are certain cases currently in court, hence PAC had to act with caution.

Said Mwangonde: “I know this has to do with [former Ministry of Finance budget director] Paul Mphwiyo, but the case is still in court and we could not go beyond what we did. We needed to ask what his role as budget director was, what his duties were, whether he noticed any dubious dealings and of course his recommendations for future reference, but most importantly why he was shot.”