KINGSTON, Jamaica—Opposition Senator Damion Crawford has accused Finance Minister Fayval Williams of “putting Jamaicans at risk”.
Crawford made the accusation on Friday during his contribution to the debate on the 2025 Appropriation Bill in the Senate.
He was pushing back at statements from both the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the media, that the budget presentations of Opposition Leader Mark Golding and Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, did not state how their proposed measures would be financed if the People’s National Party (PNP) is returned to office after the general election.
“First they say we (the PNP) have no ideas. What stupidity is that? How could a collection of over 4,000 people have no ideas; it’s better if you had said we have no good ideas,” Crawford said.
“When we lick them with ideas, they say it wasn’t costed. I want any Jamaican to go to the [budget] presentation by Andrew Holness in 2015 in this Parliament, as Leader of the Opposition going into the election and tell me where his costings were. Just go and look back at that presentation in 2015, I don’t need to tell anybody nothing. It has never been the itemisation of each project in the Opposition Leader’s speech, never,” he continued.
Crawford then shifted focused to the finance minister who was highly critical of what she described as the PNP’s “implied budget” when she closed the Budget Debate on March 25. She too charged that the PNP had failed to tell the nation how its proposals would be financed and stated that the PNP would run up a fiscal deficit of $204 billion leading to what she called “Finsac 2.0”.
She calculated the PNP’s proposals to cost nearly $49 billion but the Opposition countered at a press conference on March 26 where the Opposition Leader said the cost would be $23 billion per year.
Crawford noted that Williams had pointed out that the Government presently spends $9 billion for 200,000 students for breakfast, snack and a mid-day meal for 190 days.
He also noted that her analysis stated that the PNP’s promise to provide a meal for all needy students at the primary and secondary levels would amount to 400,000 students and a doubling of the present allocation.
“If anything is putting this country at risk it is this minister. Why we know this minister is putting this country at risk as minister of finance is because her cost analysis don’t add up; the maths is not ‘mathsing,’” said Crawford.
“If she should spend $280 per child on 200,000 children for 190 days, that is $10.6 billion. The [Government’s] budget is $8.98 billion so already she’s out billions (a) $1.66 billion shortfall,” he added.
“How much other bad maths is in this budget?” he asked
Continuing, the Opposition senator said “It is either they’re lying on the number of children because it would be 168,000 or they plan to feed 31,000 fewer who need it”.
Stressing that the finance minister’s analysis of the PNP’s budget proposal indicates that 400,000 students would need to be fed, Crawford said “the JLP’s proposal is to feed 168,000 students, they have decided to sacrifice, in this budget, 231,203 children that she says [are in need and] as the former Minister of Education she should know”.
“That is not in the budget,” but she says the PNP’s needy number is 400,000, she should know,” said Crawford.
