House Amends Appropriations Act to Exclude Amounts Related to Statutory Expenditure

The House of Representatives on Tuesday (April 9) passed amendments to the Appropriations Act 2024, to exclude the amounts related to statutory expenditure that were inadvertently included in the Act.

The Bill was piloted by Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, on behalf of Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke.

Mrs. Williams explained that the amendments are necessary, as the Constitution stipulates that statutory expenditures are not to be voted on by the House of Representatives.

“Statutory expenditures are expenditures that are charged on the Consolidated Fund or on the general revenues and assets of Jamaica by virtue of provision in the Constitution or by virtue of the provisions of any other law in force,” she noted.

“The amendments are to enable compliance with Section 163 of the Constitution, which indicates that amounts classified as statutory expenditure in the Estimates of Expenditure, shall not be voted on by the House of Representatives and should, therefore, not be included in the Appropriations Act,” she stressed.

Mrs. Williams said that the amendments to the Appropriations Act 2024, do not affect the Heads of Estimates, which do not include provisions for statutory expenditures, nor the aggregate 2024/2025 central government expenditure estimates of $1.341 trillion.

“In the Estimates of Expenditure, all those numbers are correct,” the Education Minister said.