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Cabinet has approved the award of four contracts, amounting to over $250 million, for a number projects and services to be effected at the state-run oil refinery, Petrojam. Speaking at Wednesday's (Jan. 21) post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House, Transport and Works Minister, and Chairman of the Cabinet Infrastructure Committee, Michael Henry, told journalists that the contracts have been awarded...

Cabinet has approved the establishment of a National Commission on Reparations, to consider and make recommendations on proposals seeking compensation from countries formerly engaged in the slave trade for the descendants of slaves. The approval is consequent on a submission made to Cabinet by Minister of Information, Culture, Youth, and Sports, Olivia Grange, seeking to have the Commission established, as...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, yesterday (Jan. 20) moved a motion in the Lower House, seeking Parliamentary approval for Government to guarantee payments amounting to US$127.7 million by Clarendon Alumina Production Limited (CAP), to Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica LLC (Alcoa). The provision is under the Approved Organisations and Authorities (Government Guarantee) Loans Act. Of the sum,...

Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, has informed that the State Opening of Parliament will take place on Thursday, April 2, with the Governor General, delivering the Throne Speech. The Governor-General will outline the Government's programmes and policies for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. Later in the day, the House of Representatives will convene its first official...

A Bill to amend the Jury Act, so as to enable the Registrar of the Supreme Court to make appropriate arrangements for the serving of summonses on jurors, was passed in the House of Representatives yesterday (Jan.13). The legislation, which will remove from the Commissioner of Police, the responsibility of serving such summonses, also seeks to widen the pool of...

The National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NTFATIP) is seeking to have a number of bills passed in Parliament, which are designed to strengthen the country's fight against human trafficking. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Carol Palmer, who made the announcement at a forum held on (Sept. 27) at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston for young...

The Jamaican Diaspora United Kingdom has congratulated Member of Parliament for South West St Andrew, Portia Simpson-Miller on her victory in the People's National Party leadership election. "The Jamaican Diaspora UK congratulates the Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller, MP on her success in the leadership election as the fourth president of the People's National Party. The Diaspora welcomes her and assures her...

Records from the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) indicate that a total of 31 Acts of Parliament and numerous pieces of subsidiary legislation were enacted between January and December last year. Among the Acts passed was the Caribbean Court of Justice (Original Jurisdiction) Act, 2005. The passage of this Act established the Caribbean Court of Justice as the only...

Effective January 1, 2006 the income tax threshold will be increased to $193,440, moving from $169,104, which has been in effect since July 1 this year. Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies gave details of the new threshold when he opened the 2005/06 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on April 14. The Minister pointed out that...

The House of Representatives yesterday (Nov. 29) approved a $500 million loan to the Jamaica Mortgage Bank for the financing of housing developments in several parishes. Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies who piloted the resolution seeking the government guarantee, informed that the loan, which is being sought from the Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS), would go towards the...

After extensive debate over several weeks, the Upper House gave its approval to the Maintenance Bill, with eight amendments, at yesterday's (Oct. 28) sitting. The approval of the legislation followed intense debate from both sides of the Upper House, with arguments centred on whether a public consultation should have been facilitated to gauge opinion on the law before it was...

The Upper House gave its approval to the Early Childhood Regulations, Resolutions 2005 at yesterday's (Oct. 28) sitting at Gordon House. Recommendations came from both sides of the Upper House on how to best to make the Regulations more comprehensive to recognise disabled children, as well as to give an extension on the stipulated time for pupil teachers to gain...