Integrity Commission’s allocation went up

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I wish to provide a response to your news story titled ‘Decline in allocation to fight corruption’ that appeared on Wednesday, February 12.

In the article, The Gleaner highlighted that in the 2019-20 financial year, the allocation to the Integrity Commission was $833.9 million and in the 2020-21 budget the corresponding figure is $766.7 million.

I wish to point out that the allocation in 2019-20 included approximately $96 million for redundancy payments and other one-off expenditure, including IT infrastructure. These obligations arose on the restructuring of the Integrity Commission. These expenses are non-recurring and would therefore not be repeated in FY 2020-21.

I should also add that the Integrity Commission has unfilled posts that the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MOFPS) expects will be eventually filled. As a principle, budgetary allocations are not made for unfilled posts. However, given our expectation that some of these posts will be filled during the course of 2020-21, an amount has been included in the contingency provision within the MOFPS’s budget for this. Provided these posts are filled, therefore, there would be a transfer from the MOFPS contingency provision to the Integrity Commission.

In reality, therefore, adjusting for the one-off expenditure and the contingency provisions, the allocation for the Integrity Commission is higher in the tabled 2020-21 budget than in 2019-20

I hope this information clarifies.

Nigel Clarke

Minister of Finance and the

Public Service