Several Ministries to Assist in Fight against Crime

The Government will be reallocating billions of dollars from several Ministries, Agencies and Departments to assist with the island’s crime-fighting strategies.

“The administration is going to make the largest investment in the security apparatus in the history of this nation, and I am not talking millions, I am talking billions,” says Minister of National Security, Hon. Robert Montague.

The Minister was responding to questions posed by journalists during a post-Sectoral press briefing at the Ministry’s offices in Kingston on July 7.

He said the Ministry of Tourism, through the Portfolio Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, “was the first to jump on board” as it relates to the initiative.

“Mr. Bartlett said that Jamaica has invested in the tourism industry and it is now full time for the tourism industry to invest in Jamaica in a bigger way,” he reported.

Providing details during his contribution to the 2016/17 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on July 6, Mr. Montague said several critical ministries of Government have made the decision to delay the implementation of new programmes so as to allow funding to the anti-crime programmes.

He thanked the Ministries of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, and Fisheries; Economic Growth and Job Creation; Transport and Mining; and Local Government for pushing most of their available resources in the fight against crime.