Among the proposed Budget cuts...

Health

SOME $18 million which was earmarked for the purchase of equipment for hospitals will not be disbursed this fiscal year.

The second supplementary estimates of expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday, also indicate that another $6 million which was budgeted for the improvement of health facilities will not be disbursed this year.

At the same time, the Government will not be spending $69.5 million on the Jamaica HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control II programme. Parliament had approved $346 million, but the Government is proposing to spend only $277 million this year, citing delays in the procurement process.

The programme has, among its targets, increased access to treatment, care and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS.

While the budget for the Jamaica HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control II programme is being cut, the Government is seeking to spend more than $94 million more for providing universal access for HIV treatment and care under another programme.

That programme, Global Fund II, will see its budget increased from $743 million to $837.5 million.

Social assistance

SEVERAL JAMAICANS for whom social assistance programmes were designed may have to wait until next fiscal year to benefit from the full gamut of such aid as the Government proposes massive cuts for some programmes.

An Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded school-feeding programme in the Ministry of Education has been slashed from $46.8 million to $25.5 million.

The Government blames implementation delay for the $21.4-million cut.

Under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, people living with disabilities, for example, will be forced to do without $20.8 million, which was budgeted under an IDB programme.

Parliament had originally budgeted to spend $39.7 million on the programme, which aims, among other things, to improve the quality of life for children with developmental disabilities.

A notation in the Budget states the cut is being proposed due to procurement delays.

The Government is also proposing significant cuts to the World Bank-funded social protection project. The Budget is being reduced by $271 million due to what the Government says stems from lower-than-programmed payments to beneficiaries due to non-compliance and delays in the procurement of goods and services.

Among the objectives of the social protection project is to help improve the effectiveness of the PATH (Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education) through the provision of benefits designed to motivate educational attainment and retention in secondary schools.

In the meantime, the Government is proposing to double the amount being made available for assistance to the elderly and disabled. It has been proposed that $54 million be added to the existing budget to increase it to $90 million.

Education

THE GOVERNMENT has again postponed the construction of the Cedar Grove High School in Portmore, St Catherine.

As was the case last August, when a first supplementary estimates was tabled in Parliament, the Government, by way of a second supplementary estimates tabled yesterday, is indicating that nearly $270 million budgeted for the construction of the school will not be spent this year.

Just over $700 million was approved for the construction of the school this fiscal year, but implementation delays are now being blamed for the decision to slice $268.6 million this fiscal year.

In the meantime, the late start-up of literacy and numeracy programmes under a USAID-funded basic education project has occasioned a $24-million reduction in the project's budget.

The project is designed to increase the reading fluency and foundation mathematics skills in grades one to three students in select schools.

Implementation delays are also the Government's argument for reducing the $70-million budget for a World Bank-funded early childhood development programme. That programme has been cut by $38 million.

The budget of the Ministry of Education is being cut by $546 million.

Spending cuts are being proposed for the University of Technology Enhancement Project ($61.5 million).

The Government has also indicated that it will not be spending the $28.3 million budgeted for improvement of the Japanese Language Learning Equipment at the University of the West Indies.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com