Prime Minister of Jamaica defends Budget cuts in key areas

[Lazie]

Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

PRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding yesterday sought to vigorously defend his administration's decision to slash the Budget in a number of critical areas, such as community development and poverty alleviation, despite sharp criticisms from the Opposition.

Suggesting that the Government was out of its depth in managing the economy, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Dr Omar Davies, told the House of Representatives that the administration chopped expenditure in all areas of the Budget without establishing priority areas.
Davies said the Government's expenditure, as at December 2008, was $19 billion more than was projected while revenues were $17 billion less than forecasted.

"We have a problem, you are going in the wrong direction," Davies said, charging that the Opposition had warned the administration that the Budget crafted in April was not credible.

Unapologetic
Golding was unapologetic for reducing spending in a number of areas, contending that the Government had to contract expenditure in the context of the global crisis, which was having a severe impact on the country.

Last year, the administration announced a $489.5-billion budget but last week tabled the first supplementary estimates of expenditure, which set out an additional $19 billion in spending for the current fiscal year, moving the total sum to $508 billion.
Davies said his counterpart informed him that Air Jamaica was borrowing money from the PetroCaribe fund to pay back the Ministry of Finance sums advanced to it.

But Finance Minister Audley Shaw said the Government was not seeking to conceal this move, noting that he provided his counterpart with the details.
edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...ead/lead2.html

[Lazie]

There were those who were predicting that the GCT was going to be increased or an increase in the gas tax to cover the the increase in the budget. I guess that they've been proven wrong, they have to make some noise.

[Lazie]

Davies admits capital spending cuts necessary



Friday, February 06, 2009

OPPOSITION spokesman on finance Dr Omar Davies yesterday said that Government had no choice but to slash capital expenditure, as there was no income to support programmes in the face of declining revenues.

"No politician cuts programmes unless he or she has to," Davies told members of the Rotary Club of Kingston at their luncheon held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
"There is real fiscal problem. There is real problem in the foreign exchange market, it's not a joke thing," added Davies, the former minister of finance.
Davies made the comments only two days after the Opposition blasted the Government for cutting expenditure in some areas during the debate on the Supplementary Estimates.

Cuts in capital spending for projects included those under the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) amounting to $375 million, as well as $1 million off the repairs and maintenance programme for children's homes and $4 million off the repairs and maintenance programme for places of safety.
"Part of the problem relates to the fact that the budget presented in April was not credible in the first instance. I told you so," Davies charged during Tuesday's sitting of the House of Representatives.

"A supplementary estimate based on simply reducing cash releases is not what a budget should be. Let us put the real facts on the table, rather than seeking to hold back information," he said.
But yesterday, Davies admitted that the Government was operating in trying financial times and as such Prime Minister Bruce Golding was unable to produce a cohesive stimulus package in response to the current global economic crisis.

"The truth is, he couldn't produce one, he couldn't afford one," the former finance minister remarked. Davies was minister of finance for over 15 years up to 2007.
At the same times,Davies suggested that Jamaicans placed special emphasis on domestic agriculture production and increase savings.
"We consume too much, and too much of our consumption is financed by borrowing externally," Davies said.

He added that had his administration been returned to office in the last general elections, he would have consolidated statutory deductions, a move which, he said, had the potential to increase the level of domestic savings.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._NECESSARY.asp

[Lazie]

Damn!! I heard a clip of the so called debate on Tuesday and he certainly wasn't giving that impression.