Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller greets supporters at the 71st annual conference of the People's National Party at the National Arena yesterday. In the background is Dr Peter Phillips. - Rudolph Brown/Photographer

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller yesterday flayed the Golding administration for "bungling" the attempt to renew borrowing relationships with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In what was obviously a morale-boosting presentation to the party faithful, a fired-up Simpson Miller placed the prime minister in the hot seat, challenging him to divulge critical information on the IMF negotiations.

Simpson Miller charged that the IMF was demanding answers to questions that have not been forthcoming from a team the prime minister dispatched to Washington last week.

'Critical questions'

"I call upon Bruce Golding, the prime minister, to tell Jamaica what are these 'critical questions' that have been unanswered," Simpson Miller said to a small - comparative to previous years' gathering - but captive audience at the public session of the PNP annual conference at the National Arena.

It was anticipated that Simpson Miller would have moved to shed the spectre of disunity which has haunted the PNP since its electoral loss in September 2007 and rally her forces to take on the two-year-old Golding administration.

The opposition leader did not disappoint.

Backed by the old guard, a clearly re-energised Simpson Miller castigated the Government for its management of the economy over the past 24 months.

Incompetent nature

Simpson Miller said the application to the IMF illustrated the incompetent nature of this administration.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw was not available for comment as he is off the island and is scheduled to return today.

Information Minister Daryl Vaz scoffed at Simpson Miller's comments.

"If I did not know better, I would have been convinced that the opposition leader is part of the negotiating team based on her pronouncement.

"Instead of playing games with the welfare of Jamaicans, I implorethe Opposition not to turn this IMF negotiation into a political football as this is a time for all well-thinking Jamaicans to band together with the aim of riding out this global economic storm to enable us all to benefit at the end.

According to Vaz, "The negotiations with the IMF continues and we all know that they are of a sensitive nature as the Government has a responsibility to negotiate an agreement which will have the minimum impact on the Jamaican people during this particularly challenging time."

However, Simpson Miller argued that since July, the discussions with the IMF have been marked by a series of missteps.

"It is now an open secret that the IMF is getting increasingly impatient with the incompetent manner that the discussions are being handled by the JLP government," she said.

Patience lost

The opposition leader claimed that the IMF had lost patience with the Golding administration and cancelled a scheduled visit to the island.

According to Simpson Miller, a fed-up IMF snubbed a team dispatched to Washington last week with the warning: "Don't bother to come unless you can answer the critical questions."

Said Simpson Miller: "The result is that our team has not gone because the Government could not provide answers to those critical questions.

"Why has there been no announcement by the Government of this develop-ment? Where is the transparency it promised the nation?"

Simpson Miller made reference to her Budget presentation in April when she queried whether the Government had planned to re-enter a borrowing relationship with the IMF.

"The prime minister said in response that the IMF was neither necessary nor appropriate. We recognised that Jamaica was facing serious problems in need of urgent corrective measures. The Government chose to fiddle while Jamaica burns."

Simpson Miller was quick to point out that the Opposition has long recognised that the crisis in the international economy has contributed to the current domestic challenges.

She told supporters the nature of the global political landscape has changed and that the much-touted progressive Agenda being fleshed out by the party will provide the way forward.

The Progressive Agenda, the PNP says, seeks to forge a social partnership between the party and the people to achieve economic independence for all our citizens.

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com