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JAMAICA PUBLIC BODIES
Mr Speaker, since 2002 I have made been commenting on the public bodies
expenditure as part of my annual Budget Debate. We have travelled a very long
journey since then, now Public Bodies’ reports are now a formal part of the
budgetary process where selected public bodies’ debt are now included in the
national debt statistics.
Mr Speaker, briefly this year I want to comment on 5 entities that I believe have
implications for the budgetary process in the medium to long term period. These
public bodies continue to be a threat to the integrity of our budgetary process
and may compromise our existing programme with the IMF and other multilateral
agencies. These entities are adding to the country’s stock of debt through
guarantees for specific loans. In some instances entities, such as NROCC, will have
to be absorbed into the Consolidated Budget.
1)
CAP
. The Government partner, ALCOA Minerals of Jamaica, sold its
controlling interest of 55% in the company to Noble Trading Limited. The
Government’s obligations as the minority shareholder continues -funding
its portion for capital expansion and working capital.
The company has been making losses of US$85M in 2013/2014 and 25.88M
in 2014/2015. Projection is for the company to show a profit in 2015/2016
of US$16M.
Mr Speaker, we have to question the rationale of such projections despite
projected increases in sales and the massive reduction in costs.
More concerning to us is the funding of the Government’s portion of:-
a)
The debt of US$177M; and
b)
Capital expenditure of US$24M.