Political commentator and attorney-at-law Dr Paul Ashley believes that Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke will today withdraw his controversial “Massa Mark” slur, which was aimed at Opposition Leader Mark Golding in Gordon...
House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert appears to be on a collision course with St Andrew South Western Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Angela Brown Burke as the latter faces possible sanction next week after telling a government minister to “shut...
Prospective homeowners who are contributors to the National Housing Trust (NHT) will, in a matter of months, be able to benefit from a 15 per cent increase in the loan limit offered by the agency. Effective July 1, 2023, the NHT will increase the...
Opposition Leader Mark Golding says the finance minister’s heralding of “no new taxes” in his opening Budget Debate presentation last week rang hollow, noting that over fiscal years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the Government raked in an additional $...
Julian Robinson, the opposition spokesman on finance, has accused the Government of making the Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC) unattractive and unviable. He said that urgent action was needed to rescue the entity from crumbling. Making...
Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson has urged the Government to revise the $580 weekly payment to beneficiaries under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), which he says can barely fund the nutritional needs...
The Government is taking steps to revitalise the second-sale used car market in Jamaica providing more options for consumers selling their vehicles. Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke on Tuesday announced proposed policy...
While conceding that critical public sector groups, including the police, teachers, and doctors, deserve more under the compensation restructuring exercise, Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke on Tuesday told them plainly in...
With the point-to-point inflation rate for December 2022 closing at 9.4 per cent for the calendar year as reported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), one category of low-income earners is urging Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke to...
Sharp competition in the job market has been cited by Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke as the primary reason for the Statistical Institute of Jamaica’s (STATIN) inability to recruit the full complement of workers to carry out...
A declaration by Dr Andrew Wheatley, the member of parliament (MP) for St Catherine East Central, that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is prepared for local government elections was met with a chorus of “call it” from the parliamentary Opposition...
Senior Cabinet minister Delroy Chuck is calling for swift action against the “responsible” person(s) at the Integrity Commission (IC) who caused the tabling of a report referring Prime Minister Andrew Holness for a corruption probe despite having...
Social Development Commission (SDC) Executive Director Dr Dwayne Vernon has sought to distance his organisation from involvement in the procurement of the services of Westcon Construction Limited to carry out works in Prime Minister Andrew Holness...
The 25,000-strong Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has signalled that it will not be “strong-armed” by the Government into signing the compensation restructuring agreement by the end of the current fiscal year in March. JTA President La Sonja...
The Government has pledged to formally establish the Constitutional Reform Committee at the end of the next round of Vale Royal talks expected to be convened before the end of February. At present, there is a stalemate between the Government and...
The slashing of the Government’s Agricultural Modernisation Programme by $150 million has angered St Ann South East Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna, who lambasted the administration Wednesday for treating small farmers with scant regard. The...
With a window of opportunity for delinquent motorists to settle unpaid traffic tickets with the courts set to close next Tuesday, the parliamentary Opposition is suggesting that the period of amnesty be extended to April 30. Legislation to allow...
The controversial pre-charge clause in the proposed Bail Act 2022 will be doomed to face fierce court challenges on its constitutionality, a senior oppposition member of a parliamentary review committee has warned. “We have listened carefully to...
A legislative fix has been found to plug a hole in the judicial system that caused 81-year-old Noel Chambers to die in a correctional facility in June 2020 after a 40-year wait for trial. That’s the word from Minister of Legal and Constitutional...
A government lawmaker and an opposition counterpart on Wednesday insisted that the word ‘defendant’ should not be used to describe a person who has not been charged with an offence. As the joint select committee considering the new Bail Act 2022...
Fourteen policemen are under scrutiny for their involvement in 30 of 129 fatal shootings over the one-year period ending June 2021. But more starkly, the same 14 have been flagged in 112 police-involved deaths between 2010 and June 30, 2021,...
The proposed bail law may contravene Jamaica’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms because the provisions cannot be shown to be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”, a law lecturer warned a parliamentary committee...
Despite employing its Yard to Yard Find the Child Initiative earlier this year to re-engage unaccounted-for high- and primary-school students during the heights of COVID-19, the Ministry of Education and Youth is reporting that more than 7,000 are...
Arguing that he took an oath in Parliament to defend the Constitution of Jamaica, Opposition Leader Mark Golding said that he could not support an extension of the current states of emergency (SOEs) imposed a week ago. Debating the extension for...
The offence of murder could soon attract more stringent penalties as the Government prepares to take legislation to Parliament in a matter of weeks to increase the minimum sentencing for the heinous crime to 30 years. Prime Minister Andrew Holness...
