Standing Finance Committee Begins Review of 08/09 Budget

Prime Minister Bruce Golding will over the next few days be involved in meetings of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament, to consider the 2008/2009 Estimates of Expenditure tabled in the House of Representatives by Audley Shaw Minister of Finance and the Public Service. The Committee will meet from April 1 to 3.
Last week the Bruce Golding led administration tabled a $489.5 Billion budget to cover debt servicing, capital and recurrent expenditure for the fiscal year which begins on April 1.
Budgetary increases have been proposed for the Ministries of Education, Health and National Security, to deal with free tuition and education transformation, removal of hospital user fees and crime fighting initiatives respectively.
On Wednesday, Mr. Golding’s other engagements will include an early morning address at the 13th Annual Students’ Conference of the University of Technology’s School of Business Administration. In the afternoon he will speak at the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Ceremony scheduled for the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. Later that evening, he will attend an induction ceremony at the University of the West Indies for Prime Minister David Thompson of Barbados, who will be inducted to the university’s Roll of Honour.
Mr. Golding is also scheduled to leave the island for Trinidad and Tobago later this week, to attend a special CARICOM meeting on crime. He will make his contribution to the budget debate on Tuesday, April 22.