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Cabinet has approved the tabling of Amendments to the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act 2009. Speaking at the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House on May 20, Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), with responsibility for Information and Telecommunications, Daryl Vaz, said that the amendments will facilitate a number of issues. These...

The House of Representatives approved a Government guarantee for a loan of Euro 204.4 million from the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) to the National Road Operating and Construction Company Limited (NROCC) on Tuesday May 19. Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, who moved the resolution, explained that the guarantee had become necessary because of the...

Senator the Honourable Don Wehby, today, announced that Cabinet, at its sitting on Monday, May 18, 2009, approved the implementation of a Central Treasury Management System (CTMS) geared towards improving the Central Government financial management and budget process by creating greater efficiencies. It has long been voiced that the current system of managing public funds has proven to be inefficient...

Cabinet has given drafting instructions to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to amend the Registration, Birth and Death Act, to require the inclusion of the father's name in the registration of birth. This was disclosed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, in the House of Representatives, on May 19. He further informed that the Act will also be amended to make special...

Jamaica has to stop borrowing to fund its annual budget deficits, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service Senator the Hon. Don Wehby, told the Senate on Friday (May 15). "We have reached a stage in our history, where the continuation of funding deficits by borrowing or printing money must stop. We must move to...

The Senate on Friday (May 8) adopted the Report of a Joint Select Committee of Parliament, which reviewed legislation for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate complaints of abuses by the security forces. Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Senator the Hon. Dorothy Lightbourne, said the Committee, after hearing submissions from stakeholders, felt that the Commission should be...

A Bill calling for Caribbean nationals to have their own ancestry category on the United States (US) Census Form for 2010, was recently introduced by Jamaican American Congresswoman, Yvette D. Clarke, of New York's 11th Congressional District, in the House of Representatives. The Bill calls for all questionnaires "used in the taking of any decennial census of the US population,...

Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator the Hon. Arthur Williams, has said that the Government remains committed to managing the public sector wage bill by improving the productivity of public sector wage earners. "If we can spend our limited resources better and ensure that we get value for money, then persistent talk about...

Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding, has said that the Government is determined to prevent job losses in the public sector, even as it tries to contain the wage bill. "We have no desire or intention to make workers redundant. We know the hardships that they would bear," he stated yesterday (May 5) in his contribution to the 2009/10 Budget...

The National Housing Trust (NHT) will be spending $22 billion on housing solutions this year and providing mortgage loans to 7,899 beneficiaries. Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding, who made the announcement in his contribution to the 2009/10 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives today (May 5), said the Trust will be working in conjunction with the Ministry of...

Cabinet has approved a 15 per cent increase in the cost of a contract for the provision of security services at the Half-Way-Tree Transportation Centre. The original contract sum of $52,784,190 was awarded by the Port Authority of Jamaica to Protection and Security Limited and covered the three-year period 2008 to 2011. Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing on April...

Over $32 billion in capital investments were facilitated by the Government's investment promotion arm, Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI), during the 2008/09 fiscal year, Minister of Industry, Investment, and Commerce, Hon. Karl Samuda, told Parliament today (Wednesday, April 29). Making his presentation in the 2009/10 Budget Debate at Gordon House, Mr. Samuda pointed out that while final numbers were still...