IT WAS not for money why the Government overruled the local environment watchdog in permitting mining in the ecologically sensitive Puerto Bueno Mountain in St Ann, the tourism-dependent parish on Jamaica’s northern coast, Prime Minister Andrew...
Published:Monday | May 8, 2017 | 9:05 PMJovan Johnson
The Jamaican Government had no intention of valuating lands owned by the Urban Development Corporations (UDC) that were earmarked for transfer to Chinese developers of the US$720-million North-South Highway, and only started negotiations after the...
Published:Monday | May 1, 2017 | 1:12 PMJovan Johnson
Business Names Registration:* Business Names Registered for April 2016 to March 2017: 9,495* Business Names Registered for April 2015 to March 2016: 9,031* Business Names on Register: 147,162Delinquency:* How many delinquent companies are on...
Published:Tuesday | May 2, 2017 | 7:22 PMJovan Johnson
Punishing judges without necessarily seeking their removal is among needed accountability reforms, according to Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, who has given a parliamentary speech hailing "a new face of justice" in Jamaica."There is no expressed...
Published:Tuesday | April 25, 2017 | 7:12 PMJovan Johnson
Preliminary estimates put the cost of the damage from last weekend's floods at $492 million, and Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie says it is likely to grow "significantly".McKenzie had to also fend off criticisms of a premature report from...
Published:Monday | April 24, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
The Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) says there is no "merit" to students' claim that they were not given notice that failure to pay fees would end with them not being able to sit exams.According to the university, the first...
Published:Monday | April 24, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Some residents of west Kingston who received compensation arising from the deadly May 2010 security-force operation are to get more money based on the preliminary report submitted by a state-appointed compensation committee.But, according to Justice...
Published:Thursday | April 20, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Notice has been served on delinquent property owners in St Elizabeth - one of the parishes with the lowest compliance levels - that for two weeks, starting today, the authorities will be targeting them to cut arrears and help fill a $2-billion gap...
Published:Friday | April 21, 2017 | 3:59 PMJovan Johnson
An amnesty to collect $234 billion in tax arrears should be implemented, argued government Senator Don Wehby in the Senate yesterday, which approved legislation to legalise the revised property tax regime."The minister of finance (Audley Shaw) has...
Published:Thursday | April 13, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
The Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) has branded as "unacceptable" a proposal it says has come from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) for local professionals to participate in the designing of a new parliamentary building on a "voluntary...
Published:Wednesday | April 19, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Five public bodies have been identified for closure while Government, in three months, is to have a timeline for a further reduction in the number of these entities (181) - an effort the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says is needed to minimise...
Published:Wednesday | March 29, 2017 | 2:54 PMJovan Johnson
Ronald Thwaites, the opposition spokesman on education, is calling for the education minister, Ruel Reid, to give the country details on the replacement for bagged juice, which will be banned under the school-feeding programme.On Monday, Reid...
Published:Thursday | March 23, 2017 | 3:03 PMJovan Johnson
'Tainted' UDC sale of property to Bascho forces OCG to renew concerns about board appointmentsContractor General Dirk Harrison has once again urged the Government to ensure appointees to public boards are "fully aware" of their obligations. His...
Published:Sunday | March 19, 2017 | 2:07 PMJovan Johnson
Chile accepts there will never be another Usain Bolt, but the South American country has approached Jamaica, the country of the multiple Olympic gold medallist and world record holder, for help to create the environment to unleash its own Bolts."I...
Published:Sunday | March 19, 2017 | 2:28 PMJovan Johnson
Almost two weeks before the 2016-2017 financial year ends, the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), which racked up almost $900 million in losses for one financial year, is today expected to reveal how the agency's financial position has turned around...
Published:Tuesday | February 28, 2017 | 4:27 PMJovan Johnson
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has said that a one-third cut in the budget to market Jamaica overseas is not "serious", amid concerns from the Opposition that the reduced spending planned for the upcoming financial year breaks with the norm....
Published:Sunday | February 5, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Jamaicans could have their constitutionally guaranteed rights infringed on by the Andrew Holness administration as it attempts to arrest the crime surge.An indication that this could happen has come from the finance minister's chief technical...
Published:Thursday | January 26, 2017 | 3:12 PMJovan Johnson
Soon there will be no wrecker hauling away vehicles of indisciplined motorists who insist on parking in prohibited areas across Kingston and St Andrew, Mayor Delroy Williams has said as he intends to introduce a paid-parking system to increase...
Published:Sunday | January 8, 2017 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry, a defence lawyer and human-rights activist, says the proposal by influential journalist Ian Boyne for Prime Minister Andrew Holness to curtail the rights of Jamaicans to address crime should be rejected for its...
Published:Wednesday | December 14, 2016 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Jamaica will not be joining a number of other regional states which have applied for visa-free travel to the so-called Schengen area made up of 26 member states of the European Union (EU).Responding to concerns from members of the private sector and...
Published:Thursday | December 8, 2016 | 10:11 AMJovan Johnson
A debt-management branch and provisions for the Government to take up that which its public bodies owe are among a range of proposals in new legislation aimed at bringing Jamaica's debt management in line with international standards and practices....
Published:Monday | November 28, 2016 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Seventy-seven-year-old Daphne Henry says she and her family were among the electors who voted for the victorious Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the Red Hills division with on thing in mind: "change".Henry yesterday led her two sons - one of whom is...
Published:Thursday | November 24, 2016 | 12:00 AMJovan Johnson
Just days before the local government elections, the country's main anti-corruption body, the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), has opened a probe into a government bush-clearing programme, the source of tensions between the administration and...
Published:Friday | November 18, 2016 | 10:39 PMJovan Johnson
Approximately half of adult Jamaicans believe that current health minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, has maintained an above-average communication strategy in keeping the public abreast of happenings in the health sector.This was revealed in a...
Published:Wednesday | November 16, 2016 | 11:26 AMJovan Johnson
People employed in human resources will be the first group of public sector employees whose jobs will be on the chopping block when the Andrew Holness administration implements aspects of the public sector transformation agenda.This first stage of...
