Jamaican finance ministry orders hiring freeze

Mr. Omar Davies

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Jamaica's Finance Minister, Mr. Omar Davies, has ordered a freeze on public sector hiring, the Jamaican Observer says. It was not immediately clear how much the government expected to save from the hiring-freeze but government is struggling to keep the public sector deficit within five and six per cent of the overall Gross Domestic Product.

The Observer said Minister Davies issued the order in a 22nd, September memorandum to permanent secretaries and heads of government departments.

Mr. Robert Chung, acting director of the Jamaica Civil Service Association said that the organisation needed clarification to determine how the directive "will impact on our members."

"We are a bit concerned about what this turn of events means," Mr. Chung said in a television interview.

The job-freeze was among the most dramatic move by the Patterson administration to control public sector costs since returning to office a year ago and so after disclosing that the public sector deficit that was to have been four per cent for the 2002/2003 fiscal year would be double that amount.

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