At a budget defence session with the Committee, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Ilo Clement, gave conflicting figures when confronted with questions on discrepancies in the personnel cost of the budget, saying the mistake came from the National Planning’s template.
Unable to explain the discrepancies, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said personnel is the total of what is paid, in terms of salaries and allowances that they earned, adding that some of those allowances are not regular allowances; hence broken down as part of personnel cost.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Nasif Suleiman, said the responsibility of the National Assembly is to scrutinise the proposed budget, adding that as the executive in the ministry, they (officials) you must give the lawmakers accurate figures, not telling them that the conflicting figures came from the National Planning template.
