Davies mum on strategy to fix budget shortfall
MINISTER of Finance and Planning, Dr Omar Davies, on Wednesday failed to deliver on a promise made earlier that day by the prime minister, that he would explain how the projected $350-million hole in the budget from the abandoning of hospital fees for persons under 18 would be filled.
“Minister of Finance. will speak to the $350 (million) this evening when he closes, because there will be a reallocation,” Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller had told the media at her early morning post-budget briefing at Jamaica House Wednesday.
But, Dr Davies made no reference as to how the additional revenue would be acquired when he closed the budget debate Wednesday afternoon.
However, the prime minister had said at the briefing that a number of cabinet ministers had pledged to a reallocation of some of their funds towards the $350 million.
In response to the Opposition’s call for the government to explain how it will finance the announcements, the prime minister said she had no intention of putting programmes on hold because it is an election year.
“The point is that we cannot put the country on hold simply because there is going to be an election,” she said.
The prime minister also refused to give any details on her proposal to increase police efforts to capture illegal guns.
“I think all of you in here would have heard me say, over and over again, while we should be saying to the country how we are going to fight crime that, for me, I do not agree to security giving out operational details and strategies,” she explained. “What we would be doing is preparing the criminals to meet whatever action is taken.”
According to Simpson Miller, Minister of National Security Dr Peter Phillips will speak to the issue in Parliament.
On the subject of the proposed regional hospital for children and adolescents in western Jamaica, she said that while funding has been identified, she did not want to say anything further at this time.
“I have not spoken to those partners,” she said, noting that she was given permission to make the announcement.