EDITORIAL - Civil service must escape gangs of Gordon House

Sir Hugh Foot, who served as Britain's colonial governor of Jamaica for seven years, up to 1957, was among the better skilled and most effective to have held the post.

Indeed, by the time he left Jamaica for the governorship of strife-torn Cyprus, Sir Hugh had won, we perceive, genuine respect from most Jamaicans.

Part of Sir Hugh's success rested on the liberal tradition of the Foot family - his father was an MP for the Liberal party and his brother, Michael, became leader of the British Labour party - which bred in him a sense of fairness and respect for other people.

But Sir Hugh believed that there was also another important ingredient in whatever success he might have achieved in Jamaica: the quality of the civil service with which he worked, both as governor and as colonial secretary, during an earlier tour of duty in the 1940s.

In his 1964 memoirs, A Start to Freedom, Sir Hugh made it clear that he would have preferred the success of the West Indies Federation rather than Jamaica going it alone as an independent country, to whose celebration he was especially invited in 1962.

important factors

Nonetheless, he felt that there were "factors which could be put on the credit side in independent Jamaica".

Wrote Sir Hugh: "I would put first the good tradition of public service in Jamaica. When I was colonial secretary, and later when I was governor, I had been proud to have a position of leadership in a first-rate civil service."

Twice during his tenure, governments changed and the civil service continued with impartiality.

He added: "Corruption in the gross sense of financial dishonesty is practically unknown in the Jamaica service. In the sense of political partiality, it is also rare. Of course, many officials have their own personal strong opinions, but that does not prevent them from carrying out loyally the policy of their political masters."

After nearly half a century of Independence, this is hardly the perception of the Jamaican civil service. Indeed, more than 80 per cent of Jamaicans believe that the country is highly corrupt and that the political executive and the public bureaucracy are in the thick of it.

seeking power

Part of the problem, of course, is that the civil service, having acquiesced to the encroachments of politicians, eventually found itself in the capture of the gangs of Gordon House, the parties that have alternated in government for the past half-century. In their evolution, the gangs have been primarily concerned with perpetuating themselves in power for the pursuit of narrowly partisan interests.

This corruption of the civil service has inevitably led to its collapse into mediocrity and poor management and shoddy delivery of services.

As much as a reform of the gangs of Gordon House, Jamaica's recovery demands a remaking of the civil service, a robust public discussion on which is necessary and urgent.

The process of recovery should include a new approach to recruitment to create a highly skilled, well-compensated elite institution, capable, as Sir Hugh said was the case, of giving "honest advice fearlessly".

In the meantime, it might make sense to recruit from abroad, including from the Jamaican diaspora, qualified public-sector managers to lead some ministries and departments to begin to set the tone for reform.

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.