Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Jamaican government is to table a third Supplementary Budget for the current 2023/24 financial year during today’s meeting of the House of Representatives.

The revised budget should show a slight increase in expenditure along with a shifting of some allocations. The House of Representatives on Wednesday, July 19, approved the Second Supplementary Estimates for fiscal year 2023/24 in the amount of J$1.036 trillion, up from J$1.021 trillion approved in the initial budget for the current fiscal year.

The third Supplementary Budget will be referred to the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament immediately after its tabling this afternoon. The increase in the second revised budget was to reallocate to individual heads the required funds to enable payment of the compensation adjustments during the year.

The second revised budget provided for the transfer of J$14.8 billion from the contingency allocation under the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to a number of ministries, departments, and agencies heads for Object 21: Compensation of Employees.

It also provides for the addition of J$8.9 billion to recurrent programmes, primarily to facilitate the payment of compensation restructure amounts – J$1.5 billion for municipal corporations, J$1.7 billion for the National Water Commission, J$750 million for the Urban Development Corporation, J$445 million for the Jamaica Urban Transit Company/Montego Bay Metro, J$990 million for the National Solid Waste Management Authority, J$166 million for golden age homes, J$167 million for poor relief officers/inspectors, and J$298 million for infirmaries.