Budget not enough- Opposition
Published:Wednesday | April 20, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter
MEMBERS OF the Parliamentary Opposition are contending that several areas in the education and health sectors are likely to suffer greatly in the upcoming year because of deficiencies in the Budget.
Speaking yesterday at a press conference, spokespersons of the People's National Party (PNP) painted a dismal picture of the current situation affecting both entities, saying that the allocations in the Estimates of Expenditure tabled in the House of Representatives last week are not enough.
Dr Fenton Ferguson, the opposition spokesman on health, said the proposed allocation made in the Budget for health care is insufficient.
"We are deeply concerned about the arrears. At the end of January, the arrears to creditors and suppliers were in the region of $2.8 billion. Of that, over $1 billion was to creditors as it relates to medical supplies and drugs. We are very concerned that continuing at the present state, sooner or later the system will grind to a halt," he told journalists at the party's headquarters on Old Hope Road.
more needed
Despite an increase in the allocation to all the regional health authorities across the island, Ferguson said with the number of shortfalls in the health facilities, more needs to be done.
"When you put it in the context of what is happening in the hospitals and health centres in terms of care, again, the Opposition is deeply concerned."
He said the Opposition was also concerned about the Government's plans to divest the St Joseph's Hospital, which was promised to be one of the institutions that would ease the burden on the Kingston Public Hospital.
The hospital was purchased by the Government in 2007.
He raised questions about the deal as to whether the Government purchased the hospital as a simple bailout, or if there was any connection to nepotism.
Meanwhile, Senator Basil Waite, the spokesman on education, said the sector is ailing significantly, and enough money was not allotted to fix the issues.
Alluding to the Charter of Rights, the landmark constitutional amendment made by Parliament last term, which stipulates that every Jamaican child should have the right to publicly funded pre-primary and primary education, Waite said Government should reveal how it will finance the rights when the money was not allocated.
"I have seen no indications that the Government has allocated any money to guarantee this right which will shortly be contained in the Constitution as soon as it is signed into law by the governor general. So, in essence, the Government is giving this right with one hand and taking it away with the other," he argued.