CO-CHAIR of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), Richard Byles, on Tuesday highlighted the importance of Cabinet approval of the implementation plan this month for the public sector reform process.

Byles, making a presentation at the monthly EPOC press briefing at the Sagicor building in New Kingston, said this is a structural benchmark to be achieved under Jamaica’s Extended Fund Facility agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In addition to the quantitative targets of the Net International Reserves and the primary balance, there are also qualitative targets, the first milestone of which is the approval of the plan, according to Byles.

The implementation plan is to include detailed timelines for the introduction of shared corporate services for communication and human resource management, as well as the merger, abolition and/or privatisation or divestment of public entities.

“In any IMF successor programme, (I expect) the issue of public sector reform is going to loom very large as one of the benchmarks that need to be achieved,” Byles added.

Jamaica’s four-year Extended Fund Facility relationship with the IMF will come to an end in April 2017.