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Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo says funds are avail­able to meet the Gov­ern­ment’s cur­rent wage oblig­a­tions and that ad­di­tion­al re­sources will be se­cured through Par­lia­ment if need­ed.

He made the com­ment in a re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, in re­sponse to ques­tions at a Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing on Tues­day about whether pro­vi­sions were made for a pro­posed 10 per cent salary in­crease for pub­lic of­fi­cers.

Tan­coo said Gov­ern­ment could not in­clude “an un­con­firmed fig­ure” in the Bud­get for ne­go­ti­a­tions that have not yet be­gun, and ex­plained that the re­spon­si­ble ap­proach was to fund cur­rent li­a­bil­i­ties and lat­er seek par­lia­men­tary ap­proval for any new costs that arise from com­plet­ed ne­go­ti­a­tions.