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to finance some of what the JLP has proposed in its manifesto.
Why are people using these figures? Where do they come from? Is it because Buchanan has estimated a J$60b dollar cost?
If that is his estimate, then it is no wonder that a hotel on the south coast built by his administration became the most expensive hotel in the world per capita by a factor of 4!! And it is no wonder that massive cost overruns and billions of dollars unaccounted for have become the norm for this administration.
The two major planks of the JLP's manifesto are free education at the secondary level, which costs (based on figures which obtain now) J$1.1b and the removal of hospital registration fees which will cost an additional J$800m again based on the figures which obtain now. Danny Roberts suggested that Ken Baugh was being contemptuous when he suggested that ridding the country of government corruption and inefficiency will easily fund these programs.
Well let me tell you what I think is contemptuous:
"The Ministry of Finance recently admitted to a special sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that it has been in violation of the Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAA) for the past 13 years. The Ministry admitted to illegally issuing approximately $20 billion of guarantees some call it”comfort letters”.
"The Auditor General Report for the financial year ended 31 March 2004 highlighted thought provoking discrepancies on the part of the Ministry of Finance. Apparently $15.82 billion and US$176.9 million representing proceeds from financial instruments issued by the Government mysteriously forgot to find its way into the Consolidated Fund. This situation is a definite breach of the constitution. "
"the Finance Minister's intervention in the financial sector (FINSAC) cost US$1.25billion. "
"Yet another scandal to rock Dr. Davies and the Patterson administration is the massive overruns at the taxpayer funded Sandals Whitehouse Project. The original cost of the project was calculated at US$60million. According to well-placed sources the overruns are in excess of US$45million, causing the overall cost of the project to be in excess of US$105million or JA$6.3billion."
"The Jamaican economy since Dr. Davies first took office in 1993 struggled for years to grow over 1% per annum. The Jamaican economy is yet to grow above a measly 3%. This calls into question the abysmal performance of Dr. Davies. The total national debt is now in excess of $760 billion coming from $30 billion 16 years ago when this Government took office. That is a 2433.33% increase in the national debt. If that doesn’t alarm you then what will. Audley Shaw, the Opposition spokesperson of Finance, stated in the 2004/2005 Budget debate that almost $500 Billion in interest alone in the last ten years has been paid out to service the debt. This I must highlight was during the tenure of Dr.Davies. No wonder the gap between rich and poor is becoming more and more stark in Jamaica."
-Once a political system has been corrupted right from the very top leaders to the lowest rungs of the bureaucracy, the problem is very complicated. The cleansing has to start from the top and go downwards in a thorough and systematic way - Lee Kwan Yew [former Prime Minister of Singapore]
Why are people using these figures? Where do they come from? Is it because Buchanan has estimated a J$60b dollar cost?
If that is his estimate, then it is no wonder that a hotel on the south coast built by his administration became the most expensive hotel in the world per capita by a factor of 4!! And it is no wonder that massive cost overruns and billions of dollars unaccounted for have become the norm for this administration.
The two major planks of the JLP's manifesto are free education at the secondary level, which costs (based on figures which obtain now) J$1.1b and the removal of hospital registration fees which will cost an additional J$800m again based on the figures which obtain now. Danny Roberts suggested that Ken Baugh was being contemptuous when he suggested that ridding the country of government corruption and inefficiency will easily fund these programs.
Well let me tell you what I think is contemptuous:
"The Ministry of Finance recently admitted to a special sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that it has been in violation of the Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAA) for the past 13 years. The Ministry admitted to illegally issuing approximately $20 billion of guarantees some call it”comfort letters”.
"The Auditor General Report for the financial year ended 31 March 2004 highlighted thought provoking discrepancies on the part of the Ministry of Finance. Apparently $15.82 billion and US$176.9 million representing proceeds from financial instruments issued by the Government mysteriously forgot to find its way into the Consolidated Fund. This situation is a definite breach of the constitution. "
"the Finance Minister's intervention in the financial sector (FINSAC) cost US$1.25billion. "
"Yet another scandal to rock Dr. Davies and the Patterson administration is the massive overruns at the taxpayer funded Sandals Whitehouse Project. The original cost of the project was calculated at US$60million. According to well-placed sources the overruns are in excess of US$45million, causing the overall cost of the project to be in excess of US$105million or JA$6.3billion."
"The Jamaican economy since Dr. Davies first took office in 1993 struggled for years to grow over 1% per annum. The Jamaican economy is yet to grow above a measly 3%. This calls into question the abysmal performance of Dr. Davies. The total national debt is now in excess of $760 billion coming from $30 billion 16 years ago when this Government took office. That is a 2433.33% increase in the national debt. If that doesn’t alarm you then what will. Audley Shaw, the Opposition spokesperson of Finance, stated in the 2004/2005 Budget debate that almost $500 Billion in interest alone in the last ten years has been paid out to service the debt. This I must highlight was during the tenure of Dr.Davies. No wonder the gap between rich and poor is becoming more and more stark in Jamaica."
-Once a political system has been corrupted right from the very top leaders to the lowest rungs of the bureaucracy, the problem is very complicated. The cleansing has to start from the top and go downwards in a thorough and systematic way - Lee Kwan Yew [former Prime Minister of Singapore]
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