New head of the European Commission Delegation in Jamaica, Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni. - file

The European Union yesterday signalled it would be giving Jamaica greater budgetary support going forward at a workshop to develop a framework for tracking the timeliness of approved aid flows from donors and measuring the economic returns to Jamaica from its employment of such funds.

The move towards 'mutual accountability' arises from the Paris Declaration of March 2005, under which the EU and other big trading powers resolved to improve responsiveness to countries and projects the 25-member bloc has committed financing.

On Thursday, EU, other donor nation representatives and Jamaican technocrats met at the Planning Institute of Jamaica to devise a local model of the Public Expenditure and Finan-cial Accountability Performance Measurement Framework (PEFA).

The goal is better financial management of public resources.

"The EC is strengthening its strategy of cooperation with the Jamaican Government on the basis of the instrument of budget support," said new Head of Delega-tion of the European Commission in Jamaica, Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, at the opening of the workshop hosted by the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

"This is an additional reason why the public finance management assessment is a priority in our own partnership and cooperation process with Jamaica."

He did not indicate whether the support would be in the form of financial or technical assistance.

Last year, Jamaica had budgeted loan receipts of $719.34 million from the EU, but it was not immediately clear how much of the $2.8 billion appropriations in aid were from that bloc.

OECD figures to 2004 indicate that of the net US$75 million in development aid to Jamaica, the EU provided US$42 million, followed by the United States with US$27 million and the United Kingdom, US$10 million.

Once developed, the EU ambassador said Jamaica would be reviewed under the PEFA model, and its performance graded, perhaps biennially, "to get a constant joint monitoring of progress and main issues of the public finance system."

The Paris Declaration commits donors to the disbursement of aid "in a timely and predictable fashion" and in keeping with an agreed schedule, an area in which recipient countries have criticised EU countries and other large nations as being lackadaisical, almost cavalier, sometimes resulting in project delays.

But having now given the commitment to untie aid and deliver funds on schedule, donors expect in return prudent fiscal management and that Jamaica will mobilise resources to create the type of economic climate that sparks investor confidence.

The Jamaica PEFA framework will, said the EU head of delegation, provide guidance both to government and international donors on the public finance situation and needs.

"Let me stress that this is a process in which what really matters is the progress over time," said Mazzocchi-Alemanni, "not the level of the scores that Jamaica obtains in each individual indicator."

business@gleanerjm.com