Two-pronged approach for job creation
CORRUPTION
*** News last week that Jamaica had risen five places in Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) could not have been more of a welcome relief for the Government as it continues to battle a lethargic growth.
In 2016, Jamaica was ranked 83 of the176 countries included in that year’s report. Last year Jamaica rose to 68th of 180 countries listed. Jamaica fell 14 places in the 2016 index from 69th in 2015.
THRONE SPEECH
*** The 2018/19 parliamentary year commenced on Thursday, February 15, with the customary ceremonial opening highlighted by the Governor General’s inspection of a guard of honour formed by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), the walk into Gordon House by both sides of MPs and Senators led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Opposition Leader Dr. Peter Phillips from either end of Duke Street, and the Throne Speech read by the Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen.
In the Throne Speech, Sir Patrick noted that the Government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), would be focused during 2018/19 on measures to facilitate job creation.
“This is being executed through a two-pronged approach. The first is to undertake measures to equip the workers with the necessary training and certification to enhance their ability to take advantage of available opportunities,” he said.
“The second is to identify and secure new job opportunities in the United States and Canada. Discussions are being held with a major university in Canada to facilitate training programmes for our farm workers,” he added.
The Throne Speech opened the new parliamentary year (2018/19) under the theme: ‘Continuing on the Path to Prosperity”.
Other areas of priority for the Labour Ministry included enhancing labour productivity in order to boost economic growth and enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.
The Bill, on which debate was started by Labour and Social Security Minister Shahine Robinson on Tuesday, February 13, is legislating the rights of workers to do productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity and free from occupational safety and health hazards.
It will require establishment of a special division of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal(IDT), which will charge with resolving issues related to the provisions of the Bill.
The Governor general also said that emphasis will be placed on amending the National Minimum Wage Act early this calendar year in order to incorporate provisions under the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 189 relating to domestic workers.
BUDGET
***In a statement to the House of Representatives following the tabling of the 2018/19 budget, Minister of Finance Audley Shaw brought to the attention of the House a new feature of the estimates, which provides projections for three successive years of spending and revenue collection.
“I want to take this opportunity to bring to the attention of Members, the Public and the Media a new feature which has been included in the Central Government’s stimates of Expenditure. You will note the inclusion of medium term expenditure projections for financial years 2019/2020; 2020/2021; and 2021/2022.
“This means that the Estimates of Expenditure for the Central Government being tabled this afternoon now contains six years of budget information – Provisional (unaudited) Actual Expenditure ( 2016/2017), the Approved and Revised Estimates for the current financial year (2017/2018), Estimates for the upcoming fiscal year (2018/2019) as well as estimates for three additional fiscal years (2019/2020; 2020/2021; and 2021/2022)”.
He said that the projections for the three forward years are indicative of the level of spending which will be undertaken in order to continue the implementation of existing programmes and projects and, maintain Government’s operations at the current levels, within the forecasted resource envelope and programmed fiscal objectives.
“The projections are rolling and are not static but will be revised each year to ensure alignment of expenditure with the forecasted resource envelope and Government’s policy priorities,”
Shaw added:
“The inclusion of the additional three years of projected spending in the Estimates of Expenditure will become a permanent feature in the estimates and will shortly be extended to the Revenue Estimates.
“This is an effort to provide more information to the public about the Government’s future spending intentions and this is in keeping with the administration’s commitment to greater fiscal transparency and accountability.
“I want to make it clear, however, that notwithstanding the inclusion of the medium-term projections in the Estimates of Expenditure, the annual authorisation of expenditure will remain and the Parliament will continue, as it now does, to consider and vote only on the estimates for the upcoming financial year; 2018/2019 on this occasion.
“In this regard, the 2018 Appropriation Bill that I will table at the start of the budget debate in March will not include the projected estimates for the three forward years.”
ESTIMATES
*** The estimates are currently being reviewed by Auditor General Pamela Monroe-Ellis, who will make a report to Parliament, after which the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Reviews will meet to review the estimates against a report from the auditor general, which is to be tabled.