EDITORIAL - Give details for the June IMF test

Jamaica, for all practical purposes, has an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It will be merely formalised by the fund's executive board at their meeting on May 1.

So, the fiscal programme being pursued by the Government for the financial year that started on April 1 is predicated on the terms of the US$958 million extended-fund facility. In that regard, the Government will face the first quarterly performance tests under the agreement at the end of June - in less than three months' time.

This fact should concentrate the minds of policymakers on mobilising the country around the programme and tough economic choices to be made. It is time to be specific.

However, there has already been, from the perspective of domestic consumers, at least one upside from the IMF agreement. The slide of the Jamaican dollar has been halted in the face of expectations of an inflow of foreign exchange to replenish the country's depleting reserves.

But these small gains will be easily reversed and confidence in the project quickly collapsed if the Government, by tone and action, does not demonstrate the will to go all the way, or if there is no sense that the targets are achievable. Indeed, we have the example of the failure of the previous IMF agreement, under the Jamaica Labour Party administration, when the Government couldn't muster the courage to do the hard things necessary to meet its obligations.

Procrastination and failure will mean a worsening of Jamaica's crisis of debt and little or no economic growth.

It is in this context that we urge Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to fullfil her promise of a full and frank engagement of Jamaicans about the terms of the agreement and what specifically is to be done to 'pass' our quarterly performance tests. These issues have, up to now, been spoken of largely as abstractions: public-sector reform, tax reform, pension reform and so on.

NO DELAY

Understandably, publication of the detailed agreement will have to await its formal approval by the executive board. There must be no delay.

However, it would be entirely sensible for the government to immediately declare the fiscal targets it is working towards for the June quarter as well as disclose other non-market sensitive details upon which the programme is predicated.

There is no illusion, certainly not by this newspaper, that either the June test, or the ones to follow over the next four years, will be easy and will not inflict pain. But the hardship will be more willingly endured in a circumstance of transparency and people are convinced that not only are the policies necessary, but are being efficiently implemented.

In this regard, the finance minister, Dr Peter Phillips, needs to quickly assemble, and clearly define, the tasks of the technical team that is to operate from his ministry to ensure the coherent implementation of the IMF programme. Given the protection of turf for which government bureaucrats are notorious, he must outline the political and legal insulation with which they will be covered. The finance minister must also quickly name the promised public/private-sector oversight team and the mandate under which they will operate.

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