Government establishes Independent Fiscal Commission

Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke today announced the establishment of the Independent Fiscal Commission, a legal body which will guard, interpret, and monitor Jamaica's adherence to its fiscal rules.

The Fiscal Commissioner is to be sworn in on Friday.

Clarke did not name the commissioner during his budget presentation this afternoon in the House of Representatives, but he is widely expected to be Courtney Williams, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security.

Williams could not be reached for a comment.

The commissioner will also lead the charge to provide independent assessments of budgetary outcomes, in addition to independent fiscal analysis, Clarke said.

“The commission will provide an informed second opinion on fiscal developments, and is expected to play a constructive role in informing the public and, in so doing, incentivising adherence to Jamaica's fiscal rules.”

The search committee was headed by Calvin McDonald, who retired as Secretary to the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and included head of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), Keith Duncan, President of the Confederation of Trade Unions Helen Davis-Whyte, human resource specialists, among others.

The commission will formally legalise much of the work of EPOC, which was a voluntary non-governmental organisation which monitors the fiscal, monetary and financial sector indicators under the Precautionary Standby Agreement with the IMF.

Over the years, there have been calls for such a body to be legally constituted.

It is expected that the commission will work closely with the Fiscal Research Institute, which Clarke also announced.

The institute will be established at the University of the West Indies.

Its establishment will be supplemented by a budgetary grant of $200 million, which will be a down payment to endow the institute, which will be within the Department of Economics.

Clarke said this will be followed by further endowments to the entity, whose longevity will be financed from the returns on its endowment.

He said noble economic and social policy goals cannot be sustainably achieved without sound public financial management because of a lack of opportunity for public financial management, research, and training in the Caribbean.

“If we are to command our own ship, independently and sustainably, then a large increase in the supply of graduates specialising in public finance is a national imperative. In addition, generations of public sector leaders will need better exposure to, and training in, public financial management,” he told Parliament.

Clarke will be looking to the private sector for endowments as part of the Government's initiative in collaboration with UWI.

The institute, he said, will be “a non-partisan think tank engaged in conducting rigorous, high-level research, teaching, and training in public finance and public policy. The institute will offer courses in public finance and public financial management at the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

The institute, he said, “will analyse and inform economic and social policy decisions, particularly those involving public expenditure, taxation, and fiscal sustainability to help policymakers and the general population understand the impact of public choices on individuals, households, firms, the government's financial position, and the overall interaction between the domestic and global economy.”

He said Jamaica will always benefit from the advice of its multilateral partners, but the Jamaica project becomes unsustainable without increased domestic capacity for public finance management training, analysis, and research.

- Erica Virtue

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