KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Government has included a sum of $10.6 billion as contingency provisions in the estimates of expenditure for 2017/18, which were tabled last Thursday in the House of Representatives.

The contingency provisions include funds for meeting wage settlements in the first year of a new contract with trade unions representing public sector workers.

According to the estimates, in addition to the expected funding of a new agreement covering 2017/2018 for public sector workers, the contingency funds are also to meet: outstanding salary arrears to health sector groups; provisions for groups whose negotiations for the 2016/17 contract are still incomplete; a special consumption tax on fuel refund to the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ); and, a provision related to costs associated with activities under the public sector transformation programme.

During the current year (2016/17) the Government has spent some $15.7 billion meeting similar obligations, including outstanding payments resulting from the 2015/17 contract, which concludes on March 31.

In his recent contribution to the debate on the 2016/17 Supplementary Estimates, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, noted that those estimates substantially reflected the reallocation of sums which were included as contingencies in the 2016/17 budget.

Approximately $8.8 billion of the $16.2 billion which was in the budget then was transferred to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to meet government employees’ compensation related to the 2015/17 contract. These included payments to the health sector employes agreed prior to 2015.

The payments also covered outstanding travel allowances, GCT on government purchases, subsidies to the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), and payments arising from last November’s Local Government Elections.

Balford Henry