THE House of Representatives agreed last night to tack on an additional $14 billion in spending this fiscal year, after a noisy debate which threatened several times to get out of hand.

The supplementary estimates, which were tabled in the House last week primarily represented increases in funding for Cricket World Cup 2007, salary increases for government employees and additional debt payments.

Cross-talk and shouts reached a crescendo during the presentation of Opposition Spokesman on Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw, when he accused the government and some of its technocrats of corruption.

Shaw also accused Minister of Finance and Planning Omar Davies of misleading the country that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had issued a new and favourable economic report on Jamaica.

Dr Davies eventualy tabled the correspondence from the IMF, which turned out to be a concluding statement which, normally, describes the preliminary findings of IMF staff after concluding official staff visits.

However, the statement described the country’s economic performance as “remarkably strong” and predicted real economic growth of almost three per cent in 2006/2007, up from the two per cent in 2005/2006.

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