Leader of the Opposition, Dr Peter Phillips, has accused Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke of sidestepping established rules in Parliament on the budgetary process.
In his contribution to the Budget Debate yesterday in Gordon House, Phillips charged that the finance minister “undercut’ the process by changing the primary surplus target without disclosing the information to Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee or the auditor general.
Phillips said that while he was not doubting Clarke’s personal intentions in introducing measures to pay down Jamaica’s debt, the Parliament agreed that an independent body, in the form of the Auditor General’s Department, was given the mandate to review the Fiscal Policy Paper.
The opposition leader said that Clarke gave the assurance that he would “adhere to the principles of prudent fiscal management”.
“In so doing, I hereby attest to the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this Fiscal Policy Paper and its compliance with fiscal responsibility principles,” Clarke pledged, according to Phillips.
“In changing the primary surplus target without informing the auditor general or the Standing Finance Committee, you have made your own words false and ministers of finance must never be known for falsehoods,” he asserted.