Budget backtrack
Lawmakers make rare speedy amendment to estimates after statutory expenditure blunder
Published:Wednesday | April 10, 2024 | 12:09 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
Two weeks after the House of Representatives completed its debate on the Appropriations Act, more commonly known as the Budget, lawmakers on Tuesday approved an amendment to the statute, after being advised that the statutory expenditures were voted on in contravention of the law.
At the same time, St Catherine South West Member of Parliament Everald Warmington’s attempt to lay blame for the foul-up at the feet of the auditor general failed as he was told by Education Minister Fayval Williams that it is not her duty to review the estimates of expenditure as he declared.
Williams, a former junior finance minister, piloted the amendment on Tuesday in the absence of Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke. She said the purpose of the adjustment to the Appropriations Act 2024 was to exclude the amounts related to the statutory expenditure that was inadvertently included in the act.
She said the amendments became necessary as the Constitution stipulates that statutory expenditures shall not be voted on by the House of Representatives.
Williams explained that statutory expenditures are amounts that are charged on the Consolidated Fund or the general revenues and assets of Jamaica by virtue of a provision in the Constitution or any other law in force.
Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson said it was “quite unprecedented” that less than two weeks after the passage of the Budget by Parliament, lawmakers had been recalled to address a matter of this nature.
He wanted to know what gave rise to the errors, noting that technocrats have been preparing budgets for many years and it was the first time in recent memory that he had seen an error of this type.
“I ask also in the context that while human error is not fatal, I would expect that there are checks and balances within the process that if someone makes a mistake, it would be caught somewhere later down before it is actually brought to the Parliament, tabled, voted and passed by the Parliament,” he said.
He also queried whether this error would have the effect of denying the agencies the opportunity to honour their obligations in a timely way.
Williams told lawmakers that the error would not have any adverse impact on the affairs of the Government.
She said it was an error in “copying a set of numbers into the Appropriations Act”.
Warmington suggested that it was the auditor general who should have picked up the error and corrected it before the Appropriations Act was passed by Parliament.
“Was this Estimates of Expenditure reviewed by the auditor general? I believe that her department normally goes through this and sends a report back to Parliament, approving or making recommendations.
“The question is, was this done by the auditor general? If it was done by the auditor general, as in all other cases, how come she didn’t pick this up and send it back to Parliament?” he trumpeted.
Warmington charged that the “appropriate person to have found this is the auditor general. So the issue is, was she sleeping on the job ... ?”
However, in responding to Warmington, who has been a legislator for more than 30 years, Williams said: “The corrections are sent to the House by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.”
“The Appropriations Act is not reviewed by the auditor general,” Williams declared.
The auditor general reviews the Fiscal Policy Paper of the Government and sends a report to Parliament.