“HER STRONG work ethic, sound organisational skills and keen attention to detail saw her being elevated to the position of clerk to the Houses in 2021, and since that time she has commendably led her staff in providing the necessary procedural and...
Former Clerk to the Houses of Parliament Valrie Curtis has said she will accept nothing less than a public withdrawal by House Speaker Juliet Holness of a March 22 letter of reprimand sent to her and copied to 62 lawmakers in the Lower House. On...
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...
Chairman of the Economy and Production Committee, Dwight Sibblies, yesterday resisted a proposal by opposition lawmaker Fitz Jackson for the police to appear alongside Bank of Jamaica officials to discuss losses suffered by account holders at banks...
Jamaicans for Justice Executive (JFJ) Director Mickel Jackson has raised concern about a plethora of private members’ motions and a few bills moved by the parliamentary Opposition that have been languishing on the Order Paper of the House of...
Former Solicitor General Michael Hylton, King’s Counsel (KC), says the public service, which has a carefully constructed disciplinary procedure in relation to public servants, does not contemplate that politicians such as the Speaker of the House...
A MAJOR development is unfolding in the saga of the non-tabling of reports from the auditor general, with Speaker of the House of Representatives, Juliet Holness, yesterday charging that the alleged actions of the Clerk to the Houses of Parliament...
AUDITOR GENERAL (AG) Pamela Monroe Ellis says she will be dispatching two reports to Parliament on Monday that had been previously sent by her for tabling in the legislature, but were returned to her department yesterday by Speaker of the House,...
THE GOVERNMENT is taking steps to ban the discharge of effluent into the Rio Cobre with the development of legislation to tackle the vexed issue. Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced on Thursday that he has given instructions to the National...
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has rolled out new and revised housing benefits to National Housing Trust (NHT) contributors and beneficiaries. Effective July 1, 2024, the National Housing Trust will make changes to its Home Improvement Loan policy...
Sandwiched between Gordon House and the old Headquarters House in Kingston, Opposition Leader Mark Golding yesterday took the balance of his contribution to the Budget Debate to the streets after his presentation was halted in Parliament by an...
FINANCE AND the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has announced a $200,000 increase in the personal income tax threshold, resulting in 24,702 additional Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayers falling outside of the income tax roll. At the same time...
MORE PRESSURE is building on the parliamentary leadership, on the Government side, to remove controversial lawmaker Everald Warmington from the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee (ICOC) and the joint select committee reviewing the Integrity...
The Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) is projecting a surplus of more than $2.22 billion before taxation for the 2024-2025 financial year. The projected surplus for the upcoming financial year represents a marginal increase over the $2.2 billion the...
The Government is taking steps to put into operation the Sexual Harassment Tribunal in the new parliamentary year, to address sexual harassment complaints. This was announced by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen in his presentation of the Throne...
Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate Peter Bunting says the passage of the Political Ombudsman (Interim) Amendment Act 2024 on Friday has set up the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to fail at its first task to police the conduct of...
A suggestion by the parliamentary Opposition that a panel of three eminent persons be established to adjudicate on matters that arise in the run-up to the local government elections on February 26 did not find favour with the Government. The...
The Government’s attempt to rush a bill through Parliament to subsume the Office of the Political Ombudsman (OPO) into the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) was met with strong resistance from a former government minister as well as the...
Accountability campaigner Jeanette Calder believes that while Justice Minister Delroy Chuck’s concern about the time it was taking the Integrity Commission (IC) to conclude its probe into the alleged illicit enrichment of six parliamentarians is valid, his call ...
Government Senator Don Wehby has called for a comprehensive review of why capital budgets are not fully utilised within stipulated time frames. In his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on Friday, Wehby said he was in...
Commuters who travel on the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) and Montego Bay Metro buses will pay reduced fares over a 24-month period. On January 1, 2024, the regular adult fare charged by the state-owned bus companies will be reduced from $...
Opposition legislator Julian Robinson has contended that the longer the House Speaker holds on to the attorney general’s opinion on the tabling of reports from the auditor general and the Integrity Commission, the more the delay will fuel...
A man whose initials have been given as B.T. by the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) died of “illness” while in police custody as his case languished in court for 1,460 days – or four years. The oversight body prepared a case...
Nearly nine months have expired since five employees at the HEART/NSTA Trust were suspended by the management of the agency, and to date, the leadership of the training entity is unable to give a definitive timeline as to when its internal probe of...
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has suggested that the sustained pleas from Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, for forensic and other reports critical to the start of court trials to be presented in a timely manner, cannot be ignored. Chuck’s remarks come...
