Final chance for FINSAC commissioners to deliver
Published:Thursday | September 21, 2017 | 12:00 AMEdmond Campbell
Prime Minister Andrew Holness says that the commissioners preparing a report on the collapse of the financial sector in the 1990s will get no more extensions to complete their work.
The Cabinet approved a three-month extension last week for the commissioners to submit a report to the Government. A revised budget of $58.4 million was also approved by Cabinet for the completion of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company Limited (FINSAC) report.
Earlier this year, the FINSAC commission was given a seven-month extension to finish the job. However, that deadline, which was not the first, was missed by the team preparing the report.
Holness told journalists at his second quarterly press conference at Jamaica House yesterday that the volume of work had caused the commissioners to request a final extension.
FIRM TIMELINE
"Since we have started on the road, it did not make sense to abandon it, but we have set a very firm timeline now. I am saying this publicly: there will be no extensions, and there will be no more additional funding," said Holness.
"The last extension and the last additional amount will be the last. I am binding myself to that publicly," the prime minister said.
The prime minister said that the Government would keep its pledge to apologise to the residents of Tivoli Gardens for the events of May 2010, which left more than 70 people dead as the security forces sought convicted drug dealer Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
He said that the apology was written and approved by Cabinet.
"We don't want to just say we are sorry, and an apology should come with some kind of compensation, and there is a process.
"It's important that we close this chapter in Jamaica's history and draw a line and learn from those mistakes," he added.