Members of Parliament (MPs) kicked off the examination of current and capital estimates for Constitutional Agencies this morning in the Committee of Supply, starting with Parliament Office. Fielding questions was Chief Whip and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.
Opposition Member, Ganesh Mahipaul questioned whether the sum of $2.156B allocation, an increase of $233M over last year, reflects an increase for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.
Teixeira said there is only an increase of $1.1M. She explained that this is related to the 6.5 percent salary increase granted by government last year and would therefore benefit Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton and his staff. “So, in 2023, (the allocation for current expenditure) was $28M and now it is $32.5M,” the minister added.
Regarding capital expenditure, Opposition Member, Volda Lawrence asked for a disaggregation of amounts for furniture, equipment and upgrading of facilities.
Teixeira explained that said the $50.5M allocation is broken up in the following ways: repaving the eastern parking lot of the public buildings $4.5M, replacing the parliamentary libraries’ wooden floors with concrete and tile $25M, procurement of furniture and equipment for the parliament office $16M, and upgrades for the Office of Leader of the Opposition $5M.
The Committee of Supply then voted in favour of the $2.1B allocation for Parliament Office.
