Premier Andrew Fahie has indicated that his government will be bringing forth a revised budget in light of the constant decline in revenue which has been linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Fahie made the disclosure during a recent press briefing, in response to questions posed by the media.
He said, “First of all, we’re going to be bringing a revised budget because what we noticed is that no matter how much we say to persons that like everywhere else in the world due to Covid-19 that the revenues are not where we would like them to be or projected to be. But we can still make it if we cut some of our expenditures accordingly.”
“So we’re going to bring a revised budget very soon to make sure that person’s stay with in line so that we do not get involved in deficit spending, so that we do not have to cut public officers pay or call public officers from the payroll, so that we do not have to give up the lifestyle that we have grown to love. Persons have to make adjustments, we all have to make them because we’re doing some cuts across the board so that we can make sure that we all work within that means,” he further explained.
No job cuts!
The premier said while the news may appear worrisome for the public sector employees, he assured that there will be no job cuts.
“That doesn’t mean that the rest of the year the revenue might not pick back up, but at this time based on the projections, we have to adjust accordingly so that we can see. So no one needs to be frightened. Their jobs are still intact. We still with a cut going be able to give persons their increment from 2017, we’re still working on the job reclassification and salary review inside of that,” he stated.
He added, “Persons are behaving as if this is regular time and committing government to expenditures that weren’t approved or committing government to expenditures that they didn’t have conversations with before and we have to make sure that we monitor that. As Minister of Finance that’s my responsibility.”
Important outstanding projects that will be completed
In the meantime, Premier Fahie said despite the revised budget, there are still a number of outstanding projects that he intends to complete during the 2021 financial year.
He said, “We have some deliverables that we must do. We must get our children from the CTL building. No offense to it, but back on the Elmore Stoutt High School campus in a more conducive environment. That’s a must for me. I don’t care what else happened politically that is a must. I don’t want for anyone’s children what I don’t want for mine and that’s been happening since the hurricane of 2017.”