'Not now Portia' - Prime Minister approves portion of 'fix-it' funding

By Garwin Davis, Staff Reporter

Patterson and Simpson Miller

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE US$20 million that tourism minister Portia Simpson-Miller was seeking to help repair the country's image overseas following the negative publicity generated from the West Kingston violence cannot be met immediately, according to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.

Citing fiscal and budgetary constraints, the Prime Minister told reporters at a post cabinet briefing at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Montego Bay yesterday, that his government could only approve US$5 million at this time with additional funding to be sought further down the road.

"You can't come to the Cabinet and expect the Cabinet to find in one week US$20 million," he explained. "That is J$900 million. What we have done, the matter having being raised with us last week, not even in a formal submission as time did not permit us, is to deal with the situation the best way possible. This can be compared to a natural disaster and natural disasters are not something that you plan for. We deal with these things by cabinet submissions where we will have to see where the money is coming from - that is a decision that the Cabinet will decide before we go on recess. The US$5 million is just to start the difficult road we have ahead."

The Prime Minister said from last Monday the Government recognised that an immediate job had to be done to restore Jamaica's image in view of the adverse publicity overseas.

"The Cabinet has already approved a sum of US$5 million which starting today will be spent on overseas advertising. The tourism interest groups have expressed appreciation for the prompt response of government. Our meeting today did not discuss what other sums would need to be provided, but it was made clear that while we would have to search to find additional sums we have to do so within certain parameters. The first one of which is that we have fiscal targets and budgetary ceilings which cannot be ignored."

The Prime Minister said that in addition to the fact that there is not much that can be pared from other ministries the government would have to find additional resources for the security forces in light of the problems in West Kingston a fortnight ago. "I think everybody will readily accept that the last thing we want is a recurrence now that normalcy has been restored," Mr. Patterson added.

He said that the Ministry of Tourism will have to make a submission to Cabinet where they will, in due course, find what in addition to the US$5 million the government can make available for the fiscal year and how it will be funded.

The Prime Minister said that the original sum of money that was requested by the tourism ministry was not only for "damage control" as it relates to the upsurge in violence but also was intended for a long-term programme called operation growth. When pressed on whether the US$5 million wasn't only a drop in the bucket and could not suffice for what is needed for the industry at present, a clearly agitated Mr. Patterson said that the request for US$20 million was for over a one-year period and not something that can be done on a whim.

Mr. Patterson dismissed suggestions that a reshuffling of his Cabinet was imminent and that he was somewhat amused by what he called an irresponsible report that he had reassigned Mrs. Simpson Miller to another Ministry.

Mrs. Simpson Miller said that she was happy with the commitment to tourism being shown by the Prime Minister and the rest of her government colleagues, noting that the industry was now on its way to recovery.

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