A question of judgement

By Peter Espeut

When a company hires a manager, the first concern is competence: Can the person do the job? Does he have the knowledge and experience? Or does she know the relevant laws and procedures? If the answer is 'yes', the next concern is character: good judgement and integrity.

Good judgement is needed because managers are in a position to take decisions which impact on the company. A manager with poor judgement can bring the company into public disrepute and financial ruin. And integrity, because a manager with no clear sense of what is right and wrong can sully the good name of the company by becoming involved in shady deals, and might even take decisions which lead to illegal personal enrichment, and the enrichment of his friends.

In order to protect itself from corrupt or inept managers, a serious business enterprise will put in place procurement guidelines which, if applied faithfully, will prevent cronyism and conflicts of interest by distancing managers from certain decisions.

A serious company which finds a senior manager guilty of unsound judgement, of cutting corners (which amounts to breaching the law), of favouring his friends with contracts which should be put to tender, of abusing other people's property, should quickly sever its connections with that very poor and dysfunctional manager.

On April 7, The Sunday Gleaner first broke the story on the shops that were illegally constructed at the Spaldings Market and the payment of rental at the constituency office of Member of Parliament (MP) Richard Azan, to an ally of the contractor; the MP's stamp purportedly as justice of the peace (JP), but not his signature, appears on receipts shown to the press.

Local Government Minister Noel Arscott has said that Azan blundered when he instructed the contractor to build the shops without getting approval from the parish council. Azan himself has admitted that he made a mistake, so the question of his guilt or innocence is not at issue. What is of issue is whether he should remain state minister in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, whether he should remain an MP, and whether he should remain a JP. There have been widespread public calls for him to resign or be fired from all three.

Last Monday, the Cabinet of Jamaica issued a statement that Junior Works Minister Richard Azan will remain in his position because, they said, Azan's actions are not directly related to his duties as minister of state.

Doesn't the junior minister for works know that there are procurement guidelines for the award of contracts for public works? After all, this is not a contract for work to be done at his home. Did Junior Minister Azan know that there is a law against squatting, and against building structures on other people's land?

I would not excuse a junior minister in the Ministry of Education or Health for making this mistake; but for a minister of state in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, it is an egregious error. And, therefore, he should resign.

'Him run t'ings

I have no doubt that there is a great need for market space in Spaldings. Every time I pass through that lovely town, the streets are jammed with vendors and traffic competing for space. MPs must be under pressure to deliver improvements to constituents, but even to help out a desperate situation, could any decent person consider it acceptable to employ an acquaintance to build shops on public land without permission, and to allow rent for those shops to be collected at his office by one of his staff? Or did he believe that since he is the MP, he is in power, he rules, and 'him run t'ings'?

Everyone except the Cabinet and the PNP seems to have a problem with this course of action. 'A nuh nutten!' is the conclusion. Junior Minister Azan, MP, JP, in his youthful exuberance has abused his position as MP, and therefore he should resign. It really is a question of a lack of good judgement.

The contractor general and others who are investigating will determine whether laws were broken and whether criminal proceedings may be brought. But we now know Minister Azan is capable of poor judgement, and so he should not have charge of public funds or public affairs. He should not be able to debate or vote on laws being enacted in the House of Parliament.

And he has brought the office of justice of the peace into disrepute. Was the staffer in his constituency office authorised to use his JP stamp to stamp rent receipts? If not, is she still employed? If so, he should resign as JP.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.