THE GOVERNMENT is to spend $100 million on a Christmas work programme and a further $100 million on indigent housing during the first quarter of 2001, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced in the House of Representatives yesterday.
Mr. Patterson said the work programme, which would be financed by funds from Lift Up Jamaica, would start by mid-November and last until the week before Christmas and would be operated under the SESP (Social and Economic Support Programme) facility.
He said the renewal of the programme was spurred by repeated requests from parliamentarians. Last year, under the umbrella of Lift Up Jamaica, there was a special employment element which, Mr. Patterson said "is necessary and appropriate to the time of year we are about to enter".
The SESP will be required to receive proposals from individual MPs equal to their 1999 submissions for expenditure in their constituencies.
The indigent housing programme would also be the same as last year, $60 million for MPs and $40 million to be disbursed by charitable organisations.
The Prime Minister said this programme could be drawn up and submitted presently, but the disbursement would not begin until January 1, 2001, and would run for the whole first quarter of the year.
