EDITORIAL: New narrative for the public and private sectors

Richard Byles' suggestion, at a forum organised by this newspaper last Thursday, is likely to find favour with the wider public, as it does with us, but with certain caveats.

Mr Byles and his fellow panellists, primarily private-sector leaders, were seeking to understand what is to be done to lift Jamaica from three decades of economic stagnation, with its attendant underdevelopment and chronic underemployment.

If there was one point of consensus - and there were many - it was this: there is no real need to diagnose Jamaica's problems. Those are widely known. So, too, are the solutions.

The real problem, concluded, is our failure, or inability, primarily of the Government, to implement.

Mark Croskery, the CEO of the brokerage house Stocks & Securities, put it this way: "There is no need for committees and excuses. We just need to implement solutions."

Or, according to Marlene Street Forrest, the general manager of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, it is a matter of removing unnecessary bureaucracy, thus helping to free capital to go to work.

Chris Berry, the chairman of Mayberry Investments, suggests the Government may be so overwhelmed by the seemingly big issues as to be frozen into inaction.

His solution: "We need to start fixing the little things that don't work and soon you will have a great thing."

This is a perspective with which this newspaper not only agrees, but has itself articulated.

The issue is: how is it done?

Managerial weaknesses

This brings us back to Mr Byles' identification of managerial weaknesses in the public sector as a large part of the problem that might be solved by seconding managers from the private sector to work in Government.

"There are a lot of good people in the civil service who know that is the right thing do, but they do not have the kind of determined, driving, concentrated, focused leadership to execute," he said.

Mr Byles' idea, on the face of it, is attractive on several fronts, not least being the opportunity for infusing the public sector with management skills that are results-oriented, with a heavy emphasis on accountability.

Then there is the potential for changing the tone of the conversation between the public and private sectors to a narrative of genuine cooperation. In other words, such interactions might lead to a fuller appreciation by Government of its role as facilitator of investment and private-sector job creation, even as the State acts in insurance of the public good.

What any such arrangement must not become, though, is a short-term palliative, or an opportunity for Government to shrink from genuine public-sector reform.

For instance, it is widely agreed that Jamaica cannot afford a public bureaucracy of the size of the one that now exists. Our Government has established commissions, committees, and task forces to restructure and modernise, but has done little to implement.

At the same time, as Mr Byles noted, there are people with skills in the public sector, who now fiddle and twiddle, in part, because their authority was appropriated by the political executive. Or, they ceded it without a fight.

The bottom line: if the private sector helps out the public sector with management skills, it must also insist on genuine reform, including allowing a professional and accountable bureaucracy to do its job.

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.