Dear Editor,
In the course of her presentation on the 2026 Budget as shadow Minister of Labour, WIN’s Ms. Nandranie Singh was interrupted by the Speaker, who purported to correct her. Ms. Singh had pointed out that the largest item shown under the Ministry of Labour was not expenditure controlled by the Ministry but a subvention to the Board of Industrial Training. The interruption was out of order. It is not the Speaker’s role to rebut a member’s argument; that responsibility lies with the Government benches whose estimates are under scrutiny. By intervening in this manner, the Speaker crossed from presiding over debate into participating in it.
The intervention was also ill-informed. Mr. Nadir previously served as Minister of Labour and ought therefore to know that the Board of Industrial Training is a creature of statute (Industrial Training Act Cap. 39:04), not a department of the Ministry. And that a subvention does not make its expenditure ministerial spending.
If Mr. Nadir’s tenure as Minister blurred those distinctions, it is not too late for him, as Speaker, to respect them.