Supplementary Section 39: Payment of inquiry expenses by Minister
93.This section sets out what the establishing Minister is obliged to fund and what he has discretion to fund.
94.Under subsections (4) and (5), the Minister is not obliged to fund activities that he has certified to the panel as being outside the inquiry’s terms of reference.
95.The withdrawal of funding may be temporary and the Minister will resume funding if he is satisfied the inquiry is working back within the terms of reference. It is envisaged that any withdrawal of funding would only occur in exceptional circumstances. The Minister would be expected to notify the chairman if he had any concerns that the inquiry was working outside terms of reference, giving the inquiry an opportunity to address those concerns and avoid the need to remove funding.
96.Under subsection (6), the Minister is required to publish the total amount that he has paid for the inquiry under section 38. This requirement to publish costs would not cover all those costs to which the chairman must have regard under section 17(3), such as costs borne by witnesses themselves.