Smaller OPM, please

There are rumours of a Cabinet reshuffle. If they are true, I hope the reshuffle will not just be musical chairs - a change of cast but with the same script - but a rearrangement of portfolios.

The first Golding Cabinet may aptly be described as "jobs for the boys". Of the 33 JLP parliamentarians, only two were not either the speaker, a Cabinet minister, a minister of state or a parliamentary secretary. And this, after a campaign promise of smaller, more efficient government! Undoubtedly, Mr Golding was, at the time, concerned about his slim majority, with the fear that mavericks might cross the floor, so their loyalty had to be bought with big-salaried jobs bearing the much-sought-after perqs. Hopefully, he has put those fears behind him, although there may be new concerns of a palace coup with his scandal-ridden party's dip in popularity at the polls, and the need to cement his support.

Even with such a large Cabinet and retinue, the prime minister has created quite a kingdom for himself. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) is indeed a superministry, containing major portfolios like Defence, Planning and Development (including the UDC and the PIOJ), Town and Country Planning, Lands (including Surveys and Land Titling), Information and Telecom-munications (including broadcasting, the post office and the National Library), Local Govern-ment (including the fire services and garbage collection and disposal), Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, and the Environ-ment (including beach control, coastal management, marine conservation, watershed management, wildlife protection).

More efficient Government

If this model is to be followed across the Government, probably only five other superministries would be needed: Production (including Agriculture, Fisheries, Tourism, Mining, Industry), Social Welfare (Education, Health, Housing, Labour, Youth, Culture and Sports), Justice (including National Security and the Courts), Foreign Affairs, and Finance. This will reduce the Cabinet to six persons. How is this for smaller, more efficient Government!

The OPM website (www.opm.gov.jm/about/departments) states: "The main role of the Office of the Prime Minister is to support the prime minister in providing leadership and direction for an efficient and effective Government." It seems to me that by evolving into a superministry, the OPM has gone well past "providing leadership and direction" and into being a major arm of the Government's implementation machinery itself. I think the OPM is too large and unwieldy, and should return to a coordinating role rather than an implementing role.

Some balance has to be found between the two extremes: having a small number of large, unwieldy superministries and having a large number of small, cost-ineffective, 'mek-work', 'jobs-for-the- boys' little ministries.

Profound conflicts of interest

The first problem with superministries is that they contain profound conflicts of interest. Years ago, we separated 'National Security' and 'Justice' because the one arm of the ministry was reluctant to prosecute the other for brutality and abuse of power. Now in separate ministries, that reluctance is still there; it is one Government, after all.

My hobby horse with Jamaican Cabinets over the last 20 years is that the Environment portfolio has been shabbily treated by both parties. Successive prime ministers have created profound conflicts of interest by marrying the Environment portfolio with environment-damaging sectors like Tourism (hotels destroying the coastal environment), Health (hospitals releasing untreated waste), Local Government (permission given for unsustainable projects), and Housing (schemes proposed and built in inappropriate areas like Hope Gardens and Kennedy Grove). Mr Golding began his term by linking the Environment with Health, and then quickly shifted it to his own office - OPM - where it still remains, even though the health ministry still carries the name 'Ministry of Health and the Environment'.

If we go by the OPM website, it would seem that the Environment portfolio has disappeared into thin air. The word 'Environment' is not to be found there at all! The agencies which used to fall under Environment now operate under Planning and Development. Not even Sustainable Development! And so this Government may yet be the worst yet when it comes to environmental matters.

If any portfolio deserves a separate ministry, it is Environment, for that is the only way to avoid profound conflicts of interest and to ensure that our national development is sustainable. (To be continued).

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and an environmentalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.