By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterPRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson announced on Tuesday that the Government will be tabling the 2004/05 supplementary budget early next month in an attempt to fast-track the allocation of additional resources for hurricane relief to the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR).
"Cabinet yesterday (Monday) approved the tabling of the first supplementary estimate for Tuesday, December 7, which will reflect the proposed sources of funding (for the reconstruction effort)," the Prime Minister told the House of Representatives in an update on the Government's hurricane relief efforts.
According to ONR estimates, the funding required for its reconstruction efforts amounts to approximately $3 billion.
A ministry paper tabled during Tuesday's sitting of the House and accompanying the Prime Minister's statement indicated that $318 million has already been deposited in ONR accounts.
The supplementary estimates will indicate what proportion of the remaining funds needed for the ONR will be provided by the Government, private sector and international agencies.
On Tuesday, Danville Walker, the ONR's chief executive officer, told The Gleaner that only about $500 million in total has been pledged to his office by institutions within the private sector.
BULK FROM GOVERNMENT
The relatively small amount suggests that the bulk of the ONR's funds will have to be delivered from the Government's coffers, and, with two and a half months already gone in the reconstruction agency's six-month timetable, the estimates will have to be speedily approved by the House.
Mr. Patterson also indicated that more than 325,000 Jamaicans had received assistance totaling $796.6 million. Relief assistance, amounting to $277 million, was delivered to 70,000 people.
