Debated in Parliament on 6 Mar 2025.
Speaker, Sir, with your permission, may I make a clarification with regards to a supplementary question posed by the Leader of the Opposition on the 3 March Sitting?
Go ahead.
Sir, on Monday, 3 March 2025, the Leader of the Opposition asked in his supplementary question for an explanation of an apparent discrepancy between the ComCare disbursement amounts reported in FY2022 annual report and Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF's) Supporting Lower-Income Households Trends Report published in 2024.
I would like to clarify that the data in the trends report is reported on a calendar year basis whereas the data in the ComCare annual reports is reported on a financial year basis. But to be complete, I would also like to highlight that the Ministry has issued a correction to the FY2021 and FY2022 ComCare annual reports, which were earlier presented to Parliament.
On Friday, 28 February, when preparing for the MSF Committee of Supply, the MSF team reported to their director that there was an error in the FY2021 and FY2022 ComCare annual reports. A corrigenda has since been submitted to Parliament and published.
In summary, the total amount of ComCare payments in FY2021 were understated. Hence, the $112.5 million figure cited in the trends report should have been $122.5 million.
Nevertheless, the reason for the difference cited in the supplementary question is that the ComCare annual reports refer to the financial year, whereas the trends report refers to the calendar year.
Deputy Leader of the House.
PAPERCUTS