Finance Minister Audley Shaw - file photo
Finance Minister Audley Shaw, has taken Dr. Peter Phillips, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, to task for suggesting that the recently tabled budget was politically manipulated.
Mr. Shaw was making the closing presentation in this year's Budget Debate in the House of Representatives Wednesday afternoon.
"It is, I dare say, given what I know of the officials, I cannot believe that they would give their imprimaturs to these estimates. I cannot believe that these estimates of revenue are the result of the work done by the officials, given the quality of work with which I am familiar, and which they have demonstrated over the years," he quoted the Opposition Spokesman on Finance as saying.
The Finance Minister then rejected what he called the aspersions being cast.
"The government, and I as Minister of Finance, take exception to the Opposition Spokesman on Finance's snide remarks that the figures presented might have been politically manipulated. This is an unfortunate characterisation of the Budget exercise as this is the pure, unadulterated work of the technical staff at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service," he asserted.
In the meantime, Mr. Shaw has admitted that the Budget, which was tabled last month, contained an error in the allocation to the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
"I am advised that inadvertently, approximately $229 million was omitted from the budget as tabled in April. I am further advised that the error has since been corrected, and the budgetary allocation to the activity has been fully restored to $595 million by way of a Standing Finance Committee amendment," the minister explained.
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