In an effort to stimulate economic growth, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced that all government ministries will have their expenditures cut by 10 percent.

The prime minister made this announcement last night during his first national address, where he also expressed that “there will be no new public sector hiring at this time.”

“We must get our financial house in order,” Dr. Minnis said.

“We must reverse the arc of government deficit and debt.  We will appoint a special committee to advise on state-owned enterprises, with a view to reducing the burden of such enterprises on public finances.”

The prime minister also announced that there will be no renewal of contracts for emoluments which exceed $100,000 per year.

To further reduce expenditure, Dr. Minnis said the number of government vehicles will be reduced.

“Unlike the former head of government, I will be extraordinarily more vigilant in ensuring that my ministers adhere to their budgets and to financial constraints,” he said.

“I am not going to sugar coat the medicine that we are going to have to take to restore our fiscal good health.   As a doctor I know only too well that sometimes you need to deploy strong measures to get a patient’s fever to break as you seek to alleviate the symptoms and the underlying causes of ill-health.”

The prime minister also stressed that the former practice of bypassing the Ministry of Finance and bringing new spending requests directly to Cabinet, without review by the Ministry of Finance, is over and the country is in a new era of financial discipline.

Dr. Minnis pointed out that the former administration was addicted to luxury travel, often spending extraordinary sums of money on delegations travelling the world at great expense.

“We will reduce the amount of money spent on foreign travel by government officials,” he said

“We will implement changes to prevent fiscal mismanagement.  There are forensic audits being conducted to recover, where possible, the people’s money.  We are identifying loopholes so as to avoid repeat corrupt practices.”