Jump-start for JEEP

The Government says it has identified at least $4 billion to fuel its much-touted Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP).

However, the source of the money is not clear despite an attempt at an explanation yesterday by Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips.

"Remember that the Government spoke about reorienting expenditure while in Opposition ... including the JDIP (Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme), and there are other expenditures. So it is from that reorientation of expenditure (that the JEEP money will come)," Phillips said yesterday as he responded to questions about how the programme would be financed.

"There were overcommitments (under the JDIP), but not all of those commitments were at the point where they could not be retrieved, and so there is that, and there are other capital commitments that were not drawn down in the current fiscal year ... which we think can be reviewed and focused on employment intensive implementation," added Phillips.

Details coming soon

He said Transport and Works Minister Dr Omar Davies would shortly give Parliament the details of the JEEP and its implementation schedule, which would extend over more than one fiscal year.

Phillips said, however, the implementation of the emergency employment programme could begin this fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

But even as he indicated that the Government has found the money to spend on the JEEP, Phillips repeated his warning of pending sharp cuts in the Government's spending plan for the year.

J$10-billion fiscal gap

He charged that the fiscal programme the Portia Simpson Miller administration inherited from the previous government went disastrously off track in the second quarter of the fiscal year.

"As a consequence, there is now a fiscal gap of some J$10 billion for the current fiscal year and the Cabinet has agreed to measures and adjustments which will be reflected in the supplementary Budget that I will be tabling in Parliament later this month."

According to Phillips, the majority of the expenditure cuts will take place on the capital side of the Budget, but Jamaicans will have to wait until the Supplementary Estimates is tabled to find out exactly which programmes will be cut.

"The fact is, there will be cuts and they will be substantial," said Phillips.

"I told you the extent of the gap and you know that we intend to deal with the problem, and I have indicated that we have focussed on the project side, and we believe that those cuts, based on where we are in the fiscal year, can be undertaken without too much damage to the projects ... from which the money will be taken."

Phillips was addressing a media briefing on the decisions coming out of the just-concluded Cabinet retreat.

He said the administration was committed to keeping Jamaicans informed of its plans and programmes as it moves to create the macroeconomic framework for sustained growth.