EDITORIAL - Install Cabinet-ranked czar to attack bureaucracy

Last week, Investment and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda conceded that the Golding administration, in its three years in office, has not had the success it promised in untangling the bureaucracy that so constrains business and enterprise in Jamaica.

"We have achieved some degree of success, but we are nowhere where we had hoped we would be," Mr Samuda said.

Productivity council

So, Mr Samuda's latest initiative is a so-called productivity council, to which he summoned public-sector officials and private-sector leaders, last Wednesday, to an all-day grouse-airing session, which was to have concluded with a clear plan for attacking the problem.

We hope that this new process, whatever it is, works. For, as people who have to do it so often complain, wading through the state's bureaucracy is among the biggest disincentives to doing business here which, ultimately, is a check on job creation.

We are, however, not sanguine that Mr Samuda, while he will make gains at the margins, will have broad success. And that is not because he is not genuine of intent and will not try hard. He will.

Our view are that Mr Samuda will be just unable to give the effort the time and the quality of attention that is necessary to deliver transformation - and not because of distractions with party issues and responsibility.

The problem is the nature of the portfolio he occupies and, as some in the bureaucracy contend, the specific mandate that is necessary for the person who is to effect the expected change.

What is primarily expected of Mr Samuda, or anyone who holds his job, is the delivery of investments. And it is their performance on this score that they will be judged, as against eroding unnecessary regulations and antagonising bureaucrats. The temptation, often, is to find work-arounds to the red tape to land an investor rather than find a permanent solution to the impediment that may demand aggressive, guerrilla effort.

This newspaper, therefore, agrees with, and proposes to Prime Minister Golding, the suggestion emerging from some senior civil servants, that the most effective solution is likely to be the appointment of a Cabinet-level czar to lead the overhaul of the public sector.

Business-friendly environment

Such a person, with full ministerial rank and reporting directly to the prime minister, would have the authority to traverse all ministries to search constraints and humbug, with the aim of creating a business-friendly environment. This appointee would have to be impervious to the initial criticisms, and avoid ensnarement and capture by ingratiating bureaucrats.

It would be a post suitable for a newer, hungry politician keen to build his/her reputation and with the guts to stare down political colleagues and other public-sector officials.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.