Phillips threatens to take disputes with Government 'to the streets'

Angered by the Government's about-turn on its commitment to set aside $700 million in the Budget this year to carry out re-verification of the voters' list, Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips has warned that if the country cannot rely on the assurances by ministers to Parliament ,"we are asking to take the disputes to the streets".

"Parliament is being treated with disrespect. The assurances of ministers are not worth anything, and if the parliamentary democracy cannot work, then something else is going to have to cause good sense to return," Phillips declared yesterday during the sitting of Parliament's Standing Finance Committee, which is examining the Estimates of Expenditure for the 2018-2019 financial year.

"We are trespassing on the most dangerous ground," Phillips declared.

However, Finance and the Public Service Minister Audley Shaw said that his commitment to allocate $700 million in the Budget in the new fiscal year to carry out the reverification of the voters' list had been overruled by the Cabinet.

CHANGE IN PRIORITIES

Shaw told his colleague parliamentarians that Cabinet had decided to place priority on national security and the rule of law. He indicated that sums had been reallocated to tackle the soaring murder rate and crime problem plaguing the country. Last year, 1,616 Jamaicans were murdered, with St James registering record levels at 335.

"In the subsequent consideration of the realignment of priorities, the minister was superseded by higher authority: the Cabinet of Jamaica," said Shaw in response to questions from the Opposition.

This explanation was met with a chorus of objections from the Parliamentary Opposition, which called for a divide on several programmes in the Head of Estimates for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

When the votes were counted the Government side prevailed with 22 MPs saying yes to the programmes as set out in the budget of the OPM, while 17 opposition members dissented.

Attack on Shaw wrong - Chang

During deliberations, senior Government Minister Dr Horace Chang rushed to the defence of Audley Shaw saying that a "broadside on the minister of finance is grossly unfair".

However, Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips dismissed the assertion, noting that Chang's comments were misleading.

The Opposition became incensed after hearing of the switch in priorities from the promised voters' list reverification exercise to national security matters.

Chairman of the Standing Finance Committee Pearnel Charles Sr that said the Government should have advised the parliamentary opposition about its plans to delay the reverification exercise.

At the same time, MP for St Andrew South East Julian Robinson reminded Shaw that in 2015, he accused the then Government of refusing to carry out a reverification of the voters' list as part of a plot to win an election.

Quoting from a newspaper article, Robinson said that the then opposition spokesman had charged that the voters' list was padded with thousands of people who were either dead or had migrated.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com