Norris R. McDonald | The IMF, Jamaica, corruption, and the cost of injustice

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) May Title IV report on Jamaica paints a glowing picture: record-low unemployment, falling debt, controlled inflation, and recommends continued wage curbs.

But conspicuously absent is any meaningful analysis of public corruption – a glaring omission and breach of the IMF’s own 2018 anti-corruption mandate.

In 2018, the IMF formally committed to assessing public governance and corruption under its Enhanced Engagement on Governance Policy. This policy requires the Fund to investigate how political corruption and cronyism affect economic performance.

Yet in the case of Jamaica, the IMF in its May 2025 IV assessments blatantly looked the other way in ignoring the negative effects of corruption. Public corruption is anathema to good governance. This is why the IMF had decided to use monitoring of corruption as a criterion in making its reviews.

How could the IMF make such a glaring omission? Isn’t that a clear breach of its own rules?

My friends, it’s not as if the IMF did not have knowledge of persistent public outcry on possible official misconduct. They have a lofty office in the Bank of Jamaica building. Moreover, the local and international media, including The Gleaner, have extensively covered massive scandals which expose systemic abuse of power,and possible misuse of public funds.

MORAL, POLITICAL ECONOMIC FAILURE

In addition, national public leaders such as the Executive Director of Jamaica’s National Integrity Action, Professor Trevor Munroe, is on record discussing corruption issues.

And, according to Dr Munroe’s estimate, public corruption in Jamaica has created a loss of potentially five per cent of the national income, measured as GDP. Dr Munroe estimates this to be a whopping J$100 billion.

This information was revealed in a 2022 news report by journalist Mikala Johnson and that stemmed from a national conference that tackled the problem of corruption in national life.

Speaking then, Dr Munroe quite correctly noted that redirecting even a fraction of this stolen wealth could transform public services, expand school feeding programmes, and ensure proper compensation for healthcare workers and police officers.

Added to this is the number of court cases and public accountably investigations of public allegations of misconduct. I suppose that the IMF’s main goal is not to do anything to undermine Jamaica’s status as a ‘poster boy’ of their success. So, we are left with the shiny objects of pretty IMF reports, as if ‘dem tecking wi meck poppy show!’

Public corruption impacts macroeconomic stability and long-term growth. Yet the IMF remains quite conveniently silent. By excluding corruption from its review, the IMF misleads both the Jamaican public and international community into thinking that economic progress is genuine and inclusive.

PRECARIOUS FOUNDATION

Even more disturbingly, the IMF Title IV review implicitly argues for further wage restraint while poor, black Jamaican people are suffering. But wages aren’t a liability – they’re an engine of economic activity. When workers earn, they spend. When they spend, businesses thrive.

And again, Jamaica’s inequality is already staggering. Suppressing wages in such a context fuels despair and breed’s unrest. This continuation of the drastic IMF prescriptions risk breaking what little social cohesion remains.

Since first partnering with the IMF in 1977, Jamaica has averaged barely one per cent annual growth. Many years have seen outright stagnation or steep economic decline. That’s five decades of IMF-guided underperformance which has steadily gotten worse over the years.

One severe casualty of the IMF’s neo-capitalist, open-market, policies has been the destruction of domestic agriculture. Today, Jamaica imports over 60 per cent of our food which further undermines any opportunity to become a self-reliant, food-secure nation.

In the meantime, economic growth is dependent on foreign inflows from the IMF; Chinese investment and that from other countries; along with tourism earnings and remittances from overseas.

But what happens if those ‘feet of clay,’ sources of capital flows were to crumble? The whole precarious foundation of this IMF policy-driven economy would no doubt collapse!

The situation is already precarious. Tourist arrivals have dropped by 25 per cent for 2025.

Further, the US, Jamaica’s largest overseas market, is experiencing an economic downturn. The U.S. economy declined in the first quarter of this year.

The Trump-led global tariff war could well decimate remittances and cripple trade. Yet the IMF’s May 2025 assessment gave a rosy report without factoring the looming negative international challenges.

When taken altogether, all this is clearly a serious moral and economic failure.

No where is this moral and economic failure more evident than in healthcare. Cancer and kidney patients in Jamaica are routinely denied life-saving treatment due to exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses. This is a humanitarian crisis hiding in plain sight.

VISIONLESS GOVERNMENT

Rather than merely reducing government spending to meet fiscal targets, the IMF and the Government should focus on reclaiming and reallocating funds lost to political cronies. Imagine what J$100 billion could achieve if spent on catastrophic care, education, and infrastructure.

While praising falling debt, the IMF offers no answers about how Jamaica will grow. There is no bold agricultural strategy. No industrial development. No rural infrastructure plans. No vision for a digital economy.

Young Jamaicans are now denied a future by this visionless government that cares more about charade than the improvement in the quality of life of our people.

Jamaica is one of over 130 nations spending more on debt repayments than on poverty reduction, health, education, or food security. This injustice has sparked global outcry, including from Pope Francis and the Catholic Church’s Jubilee 2025 campaign.

My dear friends, Jamaica does not need more IMF applause. We need policies rooted in justice, equity, and national self-determination.

We must invest in people – not just in spreadsheets. Rebuild agriculture. Modernise industries. Strengthen public healthcare. Fund schools. Pay workers a liveable wage. Create a national development bank. Protect domestic industries. Train youth. Recognise that real development isn’t about debt targets – it’s about dignity.

Until then, Jamaica will remain two nations: one in glossy IMF brochures, the other suffering in silence.

That is the bitta truth.

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com.