Letter of the Day | Empower municipal corporations to undertake local services
Published:Monday | November 25, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Mr Michael Lee-Chin, chairman of the Economic Growth Council (EGC), believes that the inability to achieve improved economic growth is caused by the non-performing permanent secretaries working in the public sector. He further said, “until we fix this lack of accountability, there will be no public-sector transformation, and it will be difficult to attain five per cent growth in four years” ( Sunday Gleaner, November 24, 2019).
The Gleaner’s editorial further points to the need for the evasive issue of public-sector reform that “has been on Jamaica’s agenda for more than two decades” to be addressed.
However, while public-sector reform may contribute to the achievement of economic growth, we have also been ignoring three other areas – customer service, scheduled mass public transportation, and local governance.
As citizens, we waste hundreds of productivity time in lines, trying to conduct business, due to very poor performance by customer service representatives who work within the public and private sectors.
Our roads are overcrowded with vehicular traffic causing thousands of commuters to leave home very early and returning very late at nights. Children and adults are frustrated and ‘burnt out’ due to lack of rest, which also affects their performance at school or work. We need to seriously extend scheduled mass public transportation across Jamaica beyond that which is currently covered by the JUTC, and to include trains. Countries with poor scheduled mass public transportation also experience very low economic growth.
Finally, during the 1980s, the then administration reduced the responsibilities of the local parish municipalities and that of members of parliament to mere representation, and increased the size of government and bureaucracy.
The current structure prevents the municipalities from making decisions and to carry out services that can be done locally. We need to reduce the size of government by improving local governance of the parish municipalities returning education, transportation, employment, public works for implementation by the mayors and councillors, in association with the parish development committees. This would enable greater participation by citizens and achieve improved accountability to taxpayers.
Dudley C. McLean II