Standing Finance Committee examining expenditure programmes for 2023/2024

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaica’s Standing Finance Committee of Parliament has started its examination of the trillion-dollar national budget, which was tabled two weeks ago.

The committee, which comprises all 63 members of parliament (MPs), will be combing through the expenditure programme for the next two days. The Government is proposing to spend J$1.21 trillion for 2023/24 fiscal year, which is the first time Jamaica is having a trillion-dollar national budget.

The total recurrent or day-to-day expenses budget is just under J$947 billion while the money allocated for capital projects totals just over J$75.37 billion. The historic trillion-dollar budget is J$23 billion or 2.3 per cent more than the J$998 billion budget for financial year 2022-2023.

Based on the schedule, the first ministry to go under the microscope is the Office of the Prime Minister, where Cabinet ministers in that ministry, Floyd Green and Robert Morgan, as well as minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister, Homer Davis, will field questions from MPs on the budgeted expenditure under their portfolio responsibilities.

Line up for budgetary examination

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and the Office of the Cabinet is next in line with Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke and his junior minister, Marsha Smith, will field questions. Later in the day, it will be time for the ministries of tourism, legal and constitutional affairs, foreign affairs and foreign trade, health and wellness as well as national security, which will come under the radar with the respective ministers explaining the budget for their ministries.

Today’s list is completed by the ministries of economic growth and job creation; transport and mining; as well as agriculture and fisheries.

Tomorrow it will be time for the other ministries – namely justice; education and youth; science, energy and technology; industry, investment and commerce; local government and rural development; labour and social security and, last on the list, culture, gender, entertainment and sport.