EDITORIAL - The PM's challenge of red tape

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has, not surprisingly, received attention for her disclosure of China Harbour Engineering's intention to 'upscale' its proposed investment in a transshipment port in Jamaica and for the additional benefits public-sector workers will receive from the National Housing Trust.

There, though, was an equally, if not more, significant observation by Mrs Simpson Miller during her contribution to the budget debate. This, if translated into real action, could be transformative for Jamaica.

But as the prime minister said, leaders like her have talked about this matter perennially without delivering the promised change. So, people are likely to be sceptical, cynical even, about her declaration.

This newspaper, however, chooses not to be. For we sensed in Mrs Simpson Miller a new and genuine appreciation of the deleterious effect that bureaucracy and red tape have on investment and development and a seeming commitment to really get about disentangling them.

"We have been so concerned about the unscrupulous among us that we have 'red-taped' our economy into decline," she observed.

In the 16 months since her People's National Party's return to office, Mrs Simpson Miller added, getting the public sector to address the difficulties of doing business in Jamaica had to be "the first order of public-sector reform".

These difficulties are well documented in numerous global and domestic studies. They are highlighted annually in Jamaica's declining positions in the league tables of global competitiveness and the ease with which people can do business in this economy. This newspaper, as Mrs Simpson Miller did on Tuesday, often exhorts the public bureaucracy on the need for it to transform itself into one that is facilitatory, rather than an inhibitor of business.

Such a shift, of course, will demand transformative thinking - and not primarily among the political executive, but the bureaucrats themselves. That is the hard part.

For, as Mrs Simpson Miller indicated, the prevailing view of public-sector bureaucrats is that private sector is a simile for a class of rascals intent on raiding the public treasury. They have, in that context, prevailed on policymakers to construct ramparts of red tape which they guard with Praetorian zeal.

Self-perpetuating species

The bureaucracy, in the process, has morphed into an almost self-perpetuating species, keen on protecting its existence and its reason for being. Therein, if she is serious about real transformation, lies Mrs Simpson Miller's great challenge.

If history is the measure, the best bet for Mrs Simpson Miller's dismantling effort is that two new barriers will evolve for each bit of red tape that is stripped away. Mrs Simpson Miller's reforms, in that regard, would have gone the way of the others.

Unless, that is, she is deeply committed, shows real grit and throws the prestige and authority of her office behind the effort. We, therefore, look forward to who Mrs Simpson Miller appoints to head her public-sector transformation - a post she promises to fill soon.

That person will be mandated to move quickly to restart the public-sector restructuring project that has all but stalled since Mrs Simpson Miller came to office. But the immediate job of removing red tape demands more. We feel that she should appoint a Cabinet-ranked czar to move through the public sector, identifying the irritants to doing business and interfacing with the public- sector reform unit and ministers to fast-track administrative and legislative changes.

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.