state of the Government employees' pension fund by his Shadow counterpart Grant Gibbons .

Dr. Gibbons asked for details of income and expenditure of the fund after the House of Assembly approved backdated raises for retired Government workers of between 0.5 and four percent.

And he followed up with a query on whether contributions by current employees and Government would be raised to cover the extra costs of the raise.

Mr. Cox said Dr. Gibbons was "well aware'' there had been a shortfall in the fund -- and asked him to submit his questions in writing.

Dr. Gibbons said afterwards: "What surprised me is that he ducked the question -- he was not in a position to be able to answer them there and then.

"But anyone who has brought forward an order increasing the payout should be able to answer a question on what the status of the funds are at the time.'' He added that -- when in Opposition -- Mr. Cox had often questioned the state of the fund used to pay pensioners.

Former Finance Minister Dr. Gibbons said the last UBP Government were aware that "the outgoing has for some years been exceeding the incoming''.

He added: "We can't allow that to continue for any appreciable amount of time.'' Those in the public service pay between five and six percent of their salaries into the fund -- a figure matched by Government.

And pensioners are living longer, while the workforce available to support them is static or shrinking.

Dr. Gibbons admitted the fund had slipped into the red under the stewardship of the UBP.

But he said his Government had not increased the contribution level in the last year or two of its administration because of an increase needed to bail out a separate fund set up to cover health insurance for public servants.