EDITORIAL - Transforming the public sector

The new administration has pledged not to victimise, or as the junior agriculture minister, Ian Hayles, puts it, "dig out" those who may have worked closely with their former political bosses.

Mr Hayles' metaphor was borrowed from former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Cabinet minister, Daryl Vaz, in what was interpreted by many as a dire warning of the fate of civil servants, who he perceived to hold political opinions contrary to his own and whose actions were inimical to the interests of the then ruling party.

And Mr Vaz's apparent statement of intent had, for many, echoes of what has been dubbed the Seiveright Doctrine, the newspaper rant by Delano Seiveright, the president of the JLP affiliate, G2K, about untrustworthy public servants and what ought to become of them.

Of course, this newspaper agrees with and supports, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's anti-victimisation posture.

But there is need for honest introspection on the part of the public sector about the quality of its performance and whether, as currently configured, it can be a transformative partner helping to deliver Jamaica from its economic crisis.

For this fiscal year, wages and salaries to central government employees will be about J$133.74 billion. In fiscal year 2005-2006, it was $63.1 billion. That is a rise of approximately 112 per cent over six years, or a crude average hike of more than eight and a half per cent a year. The public-sector wage bill has risen much faster than wages in any other sector of the economy and substantially above either the rate of inflation or economic growth.

recurrent expenditure

Additionally, wages and salaries represent, at present, the largest single component of the Government's Budget, and this fiscal year will account for approximately 38 per cent of recurrent expenditure.

There are not many people in Jamaica who, based on these ratios, believe that taxpayers get value for their spending on public-sector wages. While it is appreciated that more than half of the bill covers such essential elements of the State as security, education and health care, there is still a sense that the public sector is, to a large extent, bloated, lazy, and inefficient.

More critically, Jamaica's public sector has not positioned itself as a partner and enabler of the private sector in the drive for sustained economic growth, job creation, and development. If anything, public servants start from a position of suspicion of the private sector and, with deliberation, wield red tape as an effective weapon of constraint.

But worse, Jamaica's civil service has, by and large, demonstrated incompetence or complicity in recent scandals involving public-sector projects - meekly ceding authority vested in it to a usurping political executive.

There is little public signal that the civil service, and the public sector, more broadly, are keen on recouping this authority and retrieving their role as the permanent managers of the public sector.

For instance, recent slow efforts at public-sector reform have, it appears, been led primarily by political managers, driven by dictates of the International Monetary Fund to reduce public-sector wages as a percentage of gross domestic product.

We expect, in the paradigm, to hear from the public sector, particularly permanent secretaries and the head of the civil service, what they intend to do to transform the current state of surrender into a modern, efficient, and productive bureaucracy.

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.