The Government has spent approximately $533 million to build 69 classrooms and accompanying amenities in primary and secondary schools since 2016, to take students off the double shift system and ease overcrowding. Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, made the disclosure during a press conference at the Ministry in Kingston on February 5. He said...

The Government is moving apace to streamline the complex compensation and allowance system across the public sector. Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, said that a policy, philosophy and accompanying strategies will be developed over the next 18 months. He noted that the objective is to attain a wage bill to gross domestic product (GDP)...

Over 2,000 previously unregistered machines were licensed during a Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) licensing amnesty late last year. “That was an important breakthrough in terms of bringing the kind of control we want to the industry,” said Chief Executive Officer at the BGLC, Vitus Evans, at a recent JIS Think Tank. He said that the amnesty was undertaken...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says funds have been set aside in the upcoming Budget for the pursuit of research at the tertiary level. He said that further details of the allocation will be provided in the Estimates of Expenditure, which will be tabled in the House of Representatives next week. He noted...

Come September 2020, the Government will be amending the format for measuring Jamaica’s gross domestic product (GDP), to include research and development as a subsector. Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says this will entail incorporating the 2008 GDP measurement update under the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA), being used by a number...

More than $600,000 in prizes is up for grabs in the Public Sector Debate Competition set to take place between March and April 2019. The competition will see public-sector workers engaged in Parliamentary-style deliberation on the matter of transformation, and other topical issues within the public service. Executive Director of the Transformation Implementation Unit (TIU), Ministry of Finance and the...

The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), on Friday (February 1), sold an additional US$30 million to authorised dealers and cambios, via the BoJ’s Foreign Exchange Intervention and Trading Tool (B-FXITT). This follows the sale of an initial US$20 million, both of which, according to a statement from the Bank, were aimed at “offsetting the effects of excessive daily volatility in the...