The Senators are correct that the chief executive officer is not allowed to express an opinion under this subsection. However, it only relates to dealings with the Committee of Public Accounts and policy in this section specifically means financial policy, rather than Government policy as a whole. No such constraint applies to appearances before other committees. The intention behind this provision is to ensure that the chief executive officer, when accounting for the financial performance of the agency to the Committee of Public Accounts, will not speculate on what might have been achieved had the allocation been higher. The aim of including such a provision is to avoid the undermining of the Estimates process, which would result from such speculation. It does not mean that the chief executive officer would be unable to take issue with regard to funding, but that it would not take place within the context of the Committee of Public Accounts, the remit of which is to concentrate on actual financial outcomes and performances.