The Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Roosevelt Skerrit, has broken down the allocations intended to various ministries under the new 2019/2020 national budget. He made this announcement in his public address while presenting the new budget to the Parliament on Tuesday. Skerrit said the Ministry of Finance will be having the largest share of the new budget.
According to the prime minister, the finance ministry will be allocated $244.6 million which comprises of $23.6 million to pay interests and another $48.8 million for debt amortization and sinking fund contribution.
“The sum of $36.5 million represents retiring benefits paid to former public officers as well as the payment of compassionate allowance and non-contributory pensions to citizens over the age of seventy,” Skerrit explained.
Next is the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development which is alloted $77.5 million. Skerrit said allocating the second largest slice of the budget to education underscores his administration’s resolve to improve literacy across the board in the country.
To this end, “an additional $2.0 million is allocated to the Dominica State College (DSC) bringing the total subvention to $6.2 million,” he said. The finance minister stated that this move will enable the government to eliminate tuition fees at the DSC as well as introduce newer academic programs.
The sum of $74.4 million goes to the Ministry of Health and Social Services, representing 11.8% of the entire recurrent budget. The Ministry of Justice, Immigration and National Security will be given $54.4 million – representing $4.2 million above what was alloted to the ministry last year. A major portion of this money will be deployed to recruiting about 100 police officers to swell the number of the police force to 600, Skerrit explained.
The Ministry of Public Works will receive $36.3 million, and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture gets $19.3 million, while the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs gets $19.4 million. Expenditure for Goods and Services is put at $239 million and $179 million slated for salaries, wages and allowances among other personal emoluments. And then the Office of the Prime Minister recieves $19.2 million allocation.
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