Journalists Cliff Hughes and George Davis wondered aloud after Finance Minister Audley Shaw's Budget presentation how Omar Davies could recover from the politically devastating, feel-good Budget that had been delivered.
In my last article, I made the point that one of the things that our Charter of Rights does is that it presents the judiciary with the opportunity to be the vanguard that stands between the citizen and the State, as the...
On April 19, the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC), along with the National Consumers' League, released a Draft Code of Conduct - Banking Services, regarding the conduct of banking entities.
Guest columnist, Dr Orville Taylor, has apparently taken on the new role of political analyst in his piece in The Sunday Gleaner of April 10, regarding the by-election in South West St Catherine.
The clumsily named Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), at $36 billion, is not only the biggest development fund and programme in the history of the country, it has the ugly potential of being the biggest political pork barrel ever.
In 1960-61, on the eve of Independence, 61 per cent of Jamaica's national income went to 20 per cent of the population. Jamaica was a very unequal society. It had been so long before.
Below is the first of a three-part series from Edward Seaga's Prime Ministerial Reflections address, hosted recently by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies.
Beyond an ad hominem title that may not necessarily be attributable to Darron Thomas, his response to my 'Clarifying the Jurisdiction of the FTC' bears a staunch resistance to reading primary as opposed to secondary research material.
Significantly slashing the tax on motor vehicles, including gas-guzzling SUVS, might not be the best way to send the signal that you support production over consumption, and it is certainly not sending a message that you are eager to reduce our crippling oil-import bill.
After laying out some three supplementary budgets in fiscal year 2010-2011, the credibility of the estimates of expenditure for fiscal year 2011-2012 presented on April 21, 2011 has immediately been questioned. The approximately $48-billion nominal increase over last year's revised figure of $497 billion crudely keeps the real budgeted amount unchanged.
When he makes his presentation later this week, Finance Minister Audley Shaw must be judged on whether his Budget can deliver growth, maintain fiscal prudence, and expand employment while reducing poverty. If his presentation indicates that these sometimes contradictory goals can be achieved, we would have a Budget we can applaud.
On Thursday, April 14, the Government of Jamaica tabled an expenditure budget of $544.721 billion in the House of Representatives which includes projected debt-servicing costs of $263.343 billion. The debt-servicing estimates suggest projected interest payments of $131.084 billion and amortisation payments of $132.259 billion.
Parliamentarians completed examination of the Estimates of Expenditure for the financial year 2011-2012 last week in a charged atmosphere, and now all eyes are on Finance Minister Audley Shaw who will open the Budget Debate this week.
The February 2010 revisions to the Financial Administration and Audit Act require the provision of significant pre-Budget information to engage the consciousness of, and feedback from, civil society. Several groups have complained of not being consulted, and it is difficult to identify a coherent and consolidated set of pre-Budget information.
The Throne Speech has been delivered to start the new parliamentary year. The Budget Debate will follow this week. The Sectoral Debate will come after that. We should be able to look to the Throne Speeches delivered by our governors general for the direction we have chosen to go forward.
Things are happening in the Budget which have not been seen for decades, perhaps not since the end of the 1960s, early 1970s. But we may be now too tired and cynical from years of lifting the massive debt burden, or too party-loving, to even notice, much more to celebrate.
The annual Budget Debate in Jamaica has always been accompanied by an increased awareness of Jamaicans that something important is going on beyond what is sometimes cynically depicted as merely a housekeeping duty by the Government, as it proposes spending to meet the anticipated costs of running the country for another year.
This is the final of a three-part series on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.Gerald Lalor and Charles GrantGuest EditorsUnlike the previous two nuclear accidents, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the primary cause of the accident was external -...
The political games are heating up. But there is one game which is not on: the game of ease-up on Bruce Golding. After his bruising wrestling match with K.D. Knight a couple of weeks ago, last week it was Portia Simpson Miller's turn to get into the ring with him - and she was declared a winner, even though the fight was called off.
A couple of recent developments brought to the fore once again intermittent concerns about Jamaica's perceived leadership vacuum. It is clear that after 49 years of independence, and now with our eighth prime minister, confidence in our political system and its leaders remains low.
