EDITORIAL - Good advice to Mr Vaz

This newspaper previously endorsed Prime Minister Andrew Holness' creation of a specific Cabinet portfolio to drive public-sector efficiency, which he assigned to Mr Daryl Vaz, the former de facto information minister. Mr Vaz also has responsibility for telecommunications.

While last week we sought to define the job for the minister and outline its potential for the administration at large, we believe it necessary to explicitly tell Mr Vaz that his role is not to stage a rodeo in a china shop, or play urban cowboy in honky-tonk. This message is necessary, we believe, given the several emerging interpretations of the position and our fear that Mr Vaz could well latch on to one that creates noise and confusion, without seriously advancing efficiency in Government, or creating a business-friendly environment.

Indeed, it is conventional wisdom in Jamaica that government red tape is a major disincentive to doing business here. For example, Jamaica ranks 107th, among 142 countries, on the World Economic Forum's latest global competitiveness index - a fall of a dozen places.

In the World Bank's global ranking of the ease of doing business in countries, Jamaica is 88th among 183 countries. It slid three positions.

But, more significantly, in the 2010-2011 period reviewed by the World Bank, governments in 125 countries implemented 245 institutional or regulatory reforms to improve the ease of doing business. That was 13 per cent more than the previous year. Jamaica did none.

Yet, as the World Bank report pointed out, globally, policymakers are increasingly recognising the role played by entrepreneurs in creating economic opportunities for themselves and others. So, governments "often take measures to improve the investment climate and boost productivity growth". The hopeful outcome of these strategies is the creation of jobs, a major deficit of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration in its four years in office.

But while eliminating bureaucracy and other structural disincentives to business and productivity from Government requires concentrated effort and energy, this must not be equated with talking loudly and walking heavily. The best outcomes are likely if the approach is cerebral and clinical, notwithstanding whatever prime ministerial green light there may be for across-the-board interventions.

Meaningful routes to change

Very important, lasting solutions won't be achieved by the one-stop shops geared to circumvent policies that remain in place, or the presence of a czar, armed with a red telephone on his desk down whose line rumbles the lava of fear. This has been tried before. Ultimately, it fails.

Three things are required if Jamaica is to create an efficient public sector that is facilitatory of business and productivity.

The first is how we think about the process. We must have an efficient public sector for the benefit of all citizens who use it, not merely for the utility of business and commerce. The country, as a whole, must own the process.

Second, there must be a rational reorganisation of the public sector, by first determining what bits work, what ought to be integrated with the other, and what ought to be discarded. That is what we understand was the job of the Public Sector Transformation Unit.

Then comes Mr Vaz's job. He ought to be the facilitator/scorekeeper, working with other ministers on follow-through and follow-up. Personality helps, but systems are what endure.