FINANCIAL Secretary Dr Wesley Hughes has indicated that the $33.5 million budgeted for the Financial Sector Adjustment Company Limited (Finsac) Commission of Enquiry, which has jumped to $48 million, could be increased even further.

The revelation, which caused a stir among members of Parliament’s Public Accounts and Appropriations Committee yesterday, came during questions posed by the People’s National Party’s Member of Parliament for North West Manchester Mikael Phillips, who, in noting the additional $14.2 million to be paid out, inquired if “there was more to come”.

The financial secretary, in responding, said this was possible since the commission, which has now completed its hearings, has asked permission to submit its report in “two parts” which could result in seeing the time lengthened. If that request is granted, the full report will not be in before August.

Yesterday, Phillips was of the opinion that the commission was “dictating” to the Administration and should be given a cut-off time.

“This needs to be completed and a deadline set, don’t allow the commissioners to dictate,” Phillips told the House committee.

“(At this rate) they will soon qualify for a pension,” the Government’s North West St Elizabeth Member of Parliament Raymond Pryce noted in a sotto voce comment.

The Commission of Enquiry, appointed in October 2008 to unearth the details of the 1990s financial sector meltdown, has been sitting since September 2009. However, it did not sit for much of 2010 as a result of court action, which eventually led to the disqualification of the original chairman, Justice Boyd Carey.

Finsac was established by the PNP Government in January 1997 with a mandate to restore stability to Jamaica’s financial institutions after a number of Jamaican banks and insurance companies folded.