Opposition muscles in on recovery task force

OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN on Finance Mark Golding says the committee announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday to chart the Jamaican economy’s rescue from the COVID-19 fallout was not sufficiently broad-based because it excluded the Opposition and other critical stakeholders.

Highlighting his concerns during a meeting of the Special Select Committee on Public Health yesterday, Golding said that the Government also failed to name a representative for the disabled community.

Committee Chairman Dr Christopher Tufton said he would raise that concern with the prime minister and Cabinet.

Tufton, the health and wellness minister, said that the parliamentary select committee set up to discuss Jamaica’s response to COVID-19 provided an opportunity for the Opposition to voice their concerns and to make recommendations.

Golding acknowledged that the committee was useful but noted that its remit was “not as broad as the overall strategic planning for delivering Jamaica from the effects of COVID”.

“... The economic and social sides are going to be exaggerated, and are already exaggerated,” the St Andrew South member of parliament said.

On Sunday, Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips called for the Government to establish a COVID-19 Prevention, Planning and Oversight Committee to enable a more inclusive planning approach to the fight against the new coronavirus.

Phillips said that the body, which would include health professionals from the public and private sectors, trade unions, churches and civil society, would be tasked to provide oversight on implementation, along with fair and impartial distribution of benefits.

It would also be responsible for sequencing the areas and sectors to be restarted as the economy seeks to eventually reopen.

However, Marlene Malahoo Forte, member of the special select committee, said to the extent that the Opposition had made a suggestion of an “all of Government, all of society approach, this has already been considered by the Government and is being constituted.

“And, it is my understanding that the parliamentary Opposition will be properly represented in that forum,” she told the committee.

Holness announced the establishment of a 22-member multi-stakeholder task force to kick-start Jamaica’s floundering economy and chart the road to recovery in the medium term.

The committee, which is chaired by Finance and the Public Service

Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, was approved by Cabinet on Monday and comprises leaders and thinkers from academia and industry.