Finance Minister Tables Second Supplementary Estimates

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, tabled the Second Supplementary Estimates for fiscal year 2022/23, in the House of Representatives on December 6.

It will primarily address the allocation of amounts previously captured under the contingencies in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service Head across other ministries, departments and agencies to facilitate implementation of the new compensation system.

“The Government of Jamaica, having reached agreement with 17 unions and staff associations on the structure of the new compensation system, is proceeding to the implementation phase of the process. The effective date for the new compensation system is April 1, 2022. The Government is seeking to commence implementation this month with the payment of arrears and new rates to some groups,” Dr. Clarke said.

“To effect these payments, the required resources need to be reflected in the relevant Heads and that is what these Second Supplementary Estimates seek to do. The Second Supplementary Estimates transfer $30.4 billion from the contingencies activity of Head 20,000 to the various ministries, departments and agencies,” he added.

Dr. Clarke noted that not all groups have settled, and therefore, a Third Supplementary Estimates will be necessary to complete the allocation of resources to facilitate full implementation of the compensation restructure.

The Second Supplementary Estimates also provide for a one-time payment in additional subvention to the local authorities and the University Hospital of the West Indies to assist both to meet their operational expenses. This amount is $1.7 billion.

“This increases the Central Government budget for the fiscal year to $973. 7 billion. The $1.7 billion in additional expenditure will be covered by additional revenue projected at $1.8 billion, as the revenue performance has improved modestly since the tabling of the First Supplementary Estimates,” Dr. Clarke said.

In his remarks, Opposition Spokesperson on Finance, Julian Robinson, queried whether all groupings within the public sector that have already signed on will receive their retroactive payments in December.

In his response, the Finance Minister explained that the Government is seeking to facilitate members who have already signed with a payment at this time “because of the nature of the time we are in”.

“We are seeking to make the arrears that are now due from April 1 to the current time available to those who have signed, and that is the policy intent. Getting that done is very challenging… and my hope is everybody does their part, and if everybody does their part, then those who are within groups who have signed should be in receipt of their back pay from April 1, until the current time,” Dr. Clarke said.

He further noted that public bodies have requested and received approval from the Ministry to pay an advance to employees.

“These will be public bodies who are not on the consolidated fund and who are not receiving the full amount of back payment. Public bodies on the consolidated fund… they will be like civil servants in Central Government receiving back pay from April 1 to December,” Dr. Clarke said.

“But those who are not on the consolidated fund, we have granted them approval to advance amounts up to a maximum of $100,000 to members of their staff, pending the finalisation of the mapping exercise, at which point the full amount of the back pay will become due,” he added.

The Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) will meet today (December 6), to consider the Second Supplementary Estimates.