$4.5b added to Budget

BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

JUST four days after the 2010/2011 Estimates of Expenditure was laid in the House of Representatives, Parliament is to be asked to approve a budget which is now $4.5 billion more than the $499.4 billion tabled last week.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw had trumpeted that the new budget was $100 billion less than the $593 billion spent last year and assured that the 2010/2011 Budget would be more reliable than the one tabled last year. However, yesterday during the first meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament to begin examining the estimates, Shaw advised that "there is going to be a slight upward adjustment in the Estimates for the following reasons".

"There is $2 billion being set aside to be part of the arrears for public sector salaries, an additional $1.7 billion will be amended in the budget for external interest payments and this is due to a miscalculation in terms of the exchange rate that was used.

"An amount of $500 million will be put for pensions, and the Constituency Development Fund, which was cut to $15 million per constituency, will be put back to $20 million per constituency -- an additional $320 million," Shaw explained.

"That brings the total to just over $4.5 billion and it will therefore mean that the new Estimates of Expenditure will amount to $503.9 billion, up from the initial $499.3 billion," he outlined further.

Shaw said a subsidy of $600 million was being provided for the Jamaica Urban Transit Company, while $550 million was being set aside for streetlights and an additional $450 million for public cleansing. Additionally, $3 billion would be allocated from the revenues from property taxes which are being revised.

Opposition spokesman on finance Dr Omar Davies yesterday chastised the Government over updated data which was not represented in the current publication.

"We were aware of the possibility of a major problem... the problem is this new book only reflects data as at September of last year of the first Supplementary Estimates," said Dr Davies. "It is now impossible for us to make the normal year-to-year comparisons. The best we can do is use the second supplementary estimates... a huge chunk of this book is useless. This document is unacceptable."

Davies said that while the Opposition understood the pressures, "in this age of technology if the data were available to be used in the Supplementary it is a matter of punching in that same data in this book and there is no excuse. So much of this discussion, if it's based on this book, is useless, the whole credibility (is at risk)".

Added Davies: "We hope somewhere in the public directorate or the officialdom somebody knows the real numbers."

Shaw, in responding, said his staff had found it "impossible" to include the information from the second supplementary in the new budget book in time for tabling last week. He said a summary reflecting the revised spending under each ministry would be provided.

"It is regretted," Shaw said, not resisting the temptation to point out that just the same slip had been made by the Opposition when it had been in Government.

Yesterday, the general feeling was that the House would not be able to complete the examination of the estimates in two days, making it a real possibility the sitting will continue into Holy Thursday.

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COMMENTS (13)

Winston G
4/1/2010

@ Dwayne Willis and George Watson
Let us discuss this "clueless" Audley Shaw (and government).
I am NOT the least bit impressed by this SHAMEFUL performance of revising the estimates in just days. Mr. Shaw MUST lose marks for this. But, hey, which of us have not made mistakes? I am NOT excusing poor performance, but it can be forgiven. But let us look at more profound facts.
FOR YEARS the former Minister of Finance (government) has been borrowing it's way, at VERY HIGH INTEREST RATES. As Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Mr. Shaw has been stressing that we can get cheaper loans and has been stressing the this high interest rate regime must stop. When he said he could get cheaper money to borrow, he was ridiculed. But he has SUCCESSFULLY delivered on that promise. Clueless???
SINCE BECOMING MINISTER OF FINANCE, Mr. Shaw has SUCCESSFULLY brought interest rates down and REDUCED OUR DEBT SERVING RATIO from more than 60% to less than 50%. How clueless is that?
If we loved our country and UNDERSTAND what this means, we would appreciate having Audley Shaw as Minister of Finance and be VERY GRATEFUL that it is no longer the "world class Finance Minister" Omar Davies. If you can be fair, you can see this.
Take a look at this and tell me just how clueless Mr. Shaw is.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/editorial-for-march-3--2010_7460011

Winston G
3/31/2010

POLITICS. POLITICS. POLITICS.
TG is so JLP he cannot admit that this performance by Shaw is pathetic.
George Watson is so PNP he cannot admit that Mr. Shaw is performing better than Omar Davies did.
Is Mr. Shaw to be commended that this year we are spending LESS THAN 50% on debt servicing? For that is of far greater importance to me than the SHAMEFUL performance of having to revise the estimates in just DAYS.
I HAVE A DREAM that one day - IN JAMAICA - we will HONESTLY judge our politicians by their performance and not the colour of our political shirts.

T G
3/31/2010

_/_/_/_/.
Millie Gee
3/31/2010
Based on the facts and his actions, Audley Shaw is losing credibility as the Minister of Finance. Nothing to do with politics. We should stop politicizing every comment. The truth is plain to see and it hurts.
_/_/_/_/.
What facts?
What has he done so far that made the economy worst?
The Comrade Governments made many errors in calculation that revealed themselves over the years. Of course Dr. Clueless was there to point this out he more than anyone had to carrect it every single time.
The Comrades have always portrayed the JLP Leadership as stupid, but the numbers show that that have over the years been not only wasteful and inept but corrupt as well.
The JLP's problem stems from walking into the traps, every single time. Mr. Golding and Co. Should have fired every single Comrade Consultants and Technical personnel that they inherited. If they made a mistake let it be on their shoulders only.
As it is we don't know exactly what is going on because the side was bowled out but help is from the failed team....
HowZat?.
....TG...

Wharf Dawg
3/31/2010

I am sure TG is a software programmed to be robotic in its responses to issues of the day.

Millie Gee
3/31/2010

Based on the facts and his actions, Audley Shaw is losing credibility as the Minister of Finance. Nothing to do with politics. We should stop politicizing every comment. The truth is plain to see and it hurts.

T G
3/31/2010

LOL The usual Comrade Talking Points it is to be expected.
Yes it egg on the face of the Government but as Mr. Shaw pointed out it is not as if the Comrade Governments did not continually make such errors. Which bring me to my other point. I hope Mr. Shaw fired the staff that worked on the previous numbers.
As for the Pork Barrel Constituency Fund here is another item that should never budgeted for.
....TG....

Benton Allen
3/31/2010

This is unacceptable and the Government should do better in presenting budgets. I am sure that the MOF hired people whom are deemed competent to carry out their functions. Mr. Shaw when are you and other going to move away from what the opposition did or did'nt do? Are you not the present government who pledged on many podiums do do better? Are you? Come on pull up your socks, be a man, and accept responsibility for your flaws. On the other hand I'm happy that the mistake was discovered before the buget is approved.

Gee Whiz
3/31/2010

All they do is use hifaluted (sp) words to trick ppl about where we are going & what we need to do as a nation. They had all the answers b4 going into power & now, it really shows that they were only blowing wind.
Pretending to care about ppl & all they care about is themselves. Both parties are the same.
All they do is "trace" in parliamment & behave like a bunch of careless girls on the roadside, while serious issues are not being dealt with. What a fine example for our future generation!!!

bobette lauriston
3/31/2010

mr shaw is inept, can't we all see that

george watson
3/31/2010

The government does not have a clue, the minister is worse, but it doesn't matter, they can always increase our taxes.
All of this going on and we hear of not one government minister or even parliamentary secretary losing his/her job, and when the PNP was in power we heard from Mr. Golding how the cabinet was heavy.
It seems that Mr. Golding is the most deceptive prime minister this country has seen to date. The man can't seem to tell the truth; and more, much more is to come.

Fionia Daniels
3/31/2010

Am I the only one that dont understand this? Every year we see they take up 4/5 days on our TV talking budget and they say this amount go to this and that amount goes to that BUT yet still we cannot see the work they are doing. Last year I heard them talk about the Street lights and to my knowledge it has not being done.
I'm just fed up of the situation in Jamaica. Every 8 months they raise the taxes but yet still minimum wage is still under $5000, while the accountants for the government are getting paid 32 million for the year. Thats nonsense.
It no mek sence to me. Dont know if I'm alone

Hope Alive
3/31/2010

Two budgets in five days! I'm sure Mr. Mr. Shaw will break his own record that he set last year. We'll have at least five budgets if he lasts as long as next year.

Dwayne Willis
3/31/2010

Sigh....does anyone still doubt that we have a clueless man running the Finance Ministry????
I can predict from now that this budget WIL be revised atleast twice

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