WILLIAMS… we inherited a mountain of domestic arrears

Minister of state in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Fayval Williams, says that the Government believes that the public enterprises should be held accountable for achieving returns on the $1.1 trillion in assets that they collective own.

She said that the Government supports mechanisms for long-term improvements in the productivity of State assets, and that these mechanisms include full or partial privatisation of the public bodies through public listing on the local stock exchange, joint ventures or public private partnerships (PPP).

Williams, making her first sectoral debate speech in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, said a World Bank study has found that what the public bodies are contributing to GDP is much less than the portion of fixed assets that they use in the economy, and that this inefficiency has been a drag on economic growth.

“The resolve, as was publicly stated, is to address this through accelerated commercialisation, restructuring and full or partial commercialisation,” she said. She added that public bodies are likely to become subjected to new categorisations with appropriate legislative, regulatory and governance arrangements.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Government-says-public-bodies-not-contributing-enough-to-GDP_64911