Debt Management Branch Being Overhauled

MONTEGO BAY — The Debt Management Branch of the Ministry of Finance, formerly known as the Debt Management Unit, is undergoing comprehensive overhaul.

According to Portfolio Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, the necessary changes, to allow for additional specialists and software tools, among other things, were in keeping with the fiscal responsibility structure put in place by the Government.

“We have entered into a whole new fiscal responsibility framework that allows for a new and higher level of transparency in the management of the financial affairs of the country.  We have placed in law, ceilings on debt, on the size of the deficit, and the level of debt that the country can accumulate,” he stated.

Minister Shaw was addressing the 7th Annual Meeting of the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean Debt Management Specialists, on October 19 at the Half Moon Hotel, in Montego Bay. 

Parliament, last year, passed amendments to the Financial Administration and Audit Act and the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act, as part of reforms being undertaken to improve the management of public finances.

The Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act seeks to prohibit public bodies from taking steps to enter into negotiations to borrow money, by way of an issue of bonds, without prior approval of the Minister. The Act further seeks to provide for corporate plans of public bodies, and any subsequent modifications of such plans, to be submitted to the Minister for endorsement and laid before the House of Representatives and Senate for approval.

The Bill also requires that the Minister lay before the House and the Senate, for approval before the end of each financial year, estimates of revenues and expenditure in respect of all public bodies.

The Financial Administration and Audit Act's amendment seeks to impose a duty on the Minister of Finance to table in Parliament a Fiscal Policy Paper containing, among other things, a macroeconomic framework providing an overview of the state of the economy.

It also imposes on the Auditor General, a duty to review the fiscal policy paper and report to Parliament thereon, and to authorise the Finance Minister to withdraw, suspend, or impose conditions on any expenditure authorised under a warrant issued pursuant to section 117 of the Constitution, if the exigencies of the financial situation so require.

Minister Shaw told the meeting that had these measures being in place years ago, many of Jamaica’s current debt management challenges might not have occurred, because “they would have informed a higher level of decision making, where fiscal irresponsibility would have been thrown out”.

Some 65 delegates from countries across Latin America and the Caribbean are attending the four-day meeting from October 18 to 21.

By Bryan Miller, JIS Reporter