EDITORIAL - New Gov't slow out of the blocks

Having endured the Government's turgid and almost impenetrable statement from Wednesday's briefing of the media on this week's meeting of the Cabinet, we have concluded that the state of Jamaica's finances is the major talking point at the ministerial retreat that began yesterday.

Our interpretation is correct that the administration is hoping to get into stride after it hears the analysis from the finance minister, Dr Peter Phillips, and is told what is, or is not, affordable. It will be high time. For it would seem that during its month in office, the administration has, by and large, been in a standing march, except for identifying the misdeeds of the past lot.

Of course, the crux of Dr Phillips' presentation will be that the country's finances are in bad shape and there will be little to spend on major projects. For example, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, up to December 2011, the Government's revenue was $15.4 billion, or six per cent, short of expectation.

The niggardly inflows on taxes and grants forced the Government to cut back its spending by nearly $9 billion, or three per cent. But even with that, its fiscal deficit was $6.5 billion, or 13 per cent, higher than was programmed for the nine-month period.

Even with Dr Phillips' plans to shear spending further in the Supplementary Estimates he is soon to present, the Government will be hard-pressed to keep its fiscal deficit to the five per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) that was the target for the fiscal year.

All of this points to the urgency and the steadfastness with which Dr Phillips has to approach negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an arrangement to replace the previous administration's standby agreement that has been off the rails for more than a year.

Indeed, Dr Phillips has very much accepted that Jamaica, as part of that package, will have to reform its public sector, including asking government employees to contribute more to their pensions, and overhaul the tax system so that more people pay.

snail's-pace leadership

None of this, though, ought to be a revelation to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her ministers. The IMF and reform issues were central to the campaign for the December general election. That is why this newspaper is mystified at how slowly the Government appears to be leaving the blocks.

The point is that public management and governance are not only about initiatives that require the spending of money - like Mrs Simpson Miller's Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), over which the administration has got itself into unnecessary tangles. The parameters and operational levers of that programme should have been defined long ago and ready for adumbration when the administration took over. The only outstanding detail should have been specific numbers.

But JEEP is only one example of the seeming ill-preparedness of the bulk of the administration. Or, if ministers are prepared, they seem to be having trouble articulating specific initiatives that don't cost money.

For an example of what we would have expected of a party prepared for government, we commend to ministers Tony Blair's memoirs, A Journey: My Political Life.

Usually, how managers, whether in business or Government, begin is a good indication of how they will end. Hopefully, that won't apply to the Simpson Miller administration.

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