GOVERNMENT and the opposition argued during a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives before the committee approved an expenditure of $1,797,511,800 for the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Skills Training.

In his address to the committee, Tertiary Education Minister Prof Prakash Persad described the ministry as lean, small and agile.

"What the figures indicate here today, is it's a new ministry, we're trying to establish baseline financial figures as we go forward."