T&T Parliament passes bill to increase 2010 expenditure by $1.7B

The House of Representatives in Trinidad and Tobago passed a bill early Saturday morning to increase the appropriation for financial year 2010 by $1.7 billion.

MPs took the vote after a sitting that began 1.30 pm on Friday and ended just before half past six on Saturday.

The money is for the year that ended on September 2010, a period included the Manning PNM administration, which ended on May 24.

The extra expenditure is:

• Ministry of Finance - $820 million)
• Ministry of the People and Social Development - $356 million
• Housing - $241 million
• Culture - $76.3 million
• Works - $62.1 million
• Community Development - $43 million
• Planning - $38.2million
• Justice - $32.4 million
• National Security - $11.4 million
• Tobago Development - $6 million
• Labour - $5 million
• Office of the Prime Minister - $21 million
• Elections and Boundaries Commission - $30.6 million

Sixteen MPs on the government side contributed to the debate. On the other side seven of the 12 MPs spoke.