SPEAKER Bridgid Annisette-George noted a call by Naparima MP Rodney Charles that she recuse herself from chairing the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives after the committee briefly touched on expenditure for the Paria Commission of Enquiry (CoE).

Charles made his claim before the committee approved a supplementation of $125,502,845 to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) on Friday.

He claimed that Annisette-George may have a conflict of interest, as the committee discussed fees to be paid to the Paria CoE. The enquiry relates to the deaths of four divers while repairing a pipeline for Paria Fuel Trading Company. Annisette-George's husband Newman George is the company's chairman.

Charles cited Erskine Mays Parliamentary Procedure to support his argument.

"Where a member of a committee, particularly the chair, has an interest which is affected by a particular inquiry or considers that a personal interest be reflected on the work of the committee or its subsequent record, they should stand aside from the committee's proceedings related to it."

Charles asked ,"Is this a question of ethics and propriety at this point?"

Annisette-George replied, "Point noted."

She continued to chair the meeting after making this comment.

As Minister in the OPM Stuart Young began his response to Charles, Annisette-George asked him to refrain as she dealt with inaudible comments from Opposition MPs.

Recalling that Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee has asked about fees for the Paria CoE before Charles made his call for her to recuse herself from the meeting, Annisette George asked, "Is it that the Member for Pointe-a-Pierre wants to withdraw his question?"

Lee replied, "No."

Annisette-George then asked Young, who is also Energy Minister, to respond to Lee's question.

Young said, "It would be remiss of me not to place on the record, the irony and the hypocrisy that we just heard from the Member for Naparima.

He added that Charles "can't spell ethics."

Annisette-George overruled claims from St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen that Young was being disrespectful to Charles.

Young said a sum of $9 million included in the $125,502,845 supplementation figure for the OPM, has been set aside to deal with payment of fees to the Paria CoE.

"Cabinet has yet to approve the final invoices of the (Paria) commissioners and the counsel to the commission. That is where the majority of the expenses were."

In a statement on Friday, the Paria CoE said it wrote to President Christine Kangaloo seeking an extension of the date to deliver its final report.

The CoE will now deliver its report to Kangaloo by August 31. The commission was initially due to submit its report by May 31.

Young said another sum of $44 million within the supplementation was to deal with other Cabinet-appointed bodies that fall under the OPM.

Young reminded MPs that the CoE into the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension project still exists. He announced the formation of this CoE at a post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre,