Tufton ranked best-performing minister, Chang the worst

Jamaica’s Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has been rated as the best-performing member of the Cabinet while National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has been ranked as the worst, an RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll has revealed.

Twenty-eight per cent of 1,113 Jamaicans who participated in the poll back Tufton as the best-performing minister, which represents a five percentage-point decline in his performance rating compared to 2021.

Fifteen per cent of respondents named National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang the worst-performing minister, representing a more than doubling of the seven per cent who held that view in a similar poll in 2021. The margin of error is +3 or -3.

Though most major crimes have dipped over the last two years, murder continues to be a millstone around the neck of national security ministers.

An RJRGLEANER poll conducted during the same period of this survey – July 16-25 – found that 46 per cent of Jamaicans considered the failure to control crime as the biggest failure of the Independence era.

Up to September 1, some 1,018 Jamaicans were murdered, a 5.8 per cent year-on-year increase.

“Because Jamaicans feel that the crime situation is not under control, anybody who is in that position, it didn’t have to be Chang, anybody would’ve come under pressure with that ministry,” CEO of Manpower & Maintenance Services, Audrey Hinchcliffe, said in a Gleaner interview on Monday.

“The minister who is holding the position is relative to the situation and how much it is being managed.”

Approximately 22 per cent of respondents were not sure who to name as best-performing minister.

Hinchcliffe, a Gleaner columnist, said people’s perception of ministers largely centres around the frequency of public visibility.

She said that she supports Tufton’s selection as best-performing minister.

“He steered the country through COVID-19 the best he could, because this was something brand new,” said the Manpower chief executive, whose own business tapped the expanded sanitisation market that accompanied the outbreak.

Jamaica recorded 150,307 COVID-19 cases and 3,268 related deaths as at September 4, with a positivity rate of around 70 per cent at its infectious peak.

The country has endured at least five waves of the highly contagious respiratory disease since it was first detected in March 2020, with its gravest hospital and fatality crisis in the summer of August 2021.

But even though many healthcare facilities almost buckled under the weight of flooded wards and oxygen supply deficits, Jamaica’s COVID mortality rate was lower than wealthier countries like North American neighbours, Mexico (4.7 per cent), the United States (1.1 per cent), and Canada (1.1 per cent).

Tufton was followed by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, who received an eight per cent rating.

Like Tufton, Clarke was one of the leading Cabinet faces of the COVID-19 response, with tens of billions of dollars channelled into recovery and welfare programmes.

But conversely, Tufton and Clarke were also named by two per cent of Jamaicans as the worst-performing minister.

“He managed the finances of the country through difficult times, and from where I sit in business, I have not heard any comments about the country’s finances being in trouble. Another thing, he’s outspoken. You can always hear from him, even when we attack him,” Hinchcliffe said of Clarke.

Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie and Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett tied for third best-performing minister with seven per cent.

Other best-performing ministers were Olivia Grange, with six per cent, and Audley Shaw, Daryl Vaz, and Fayval Williams with three per cent each.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang and Labour Minister Karl Samuda were each named by two per cent of Jamaicans.

Referencing the respondents who did not know who to name as best-performing ministers, Hinchcliffe said Jamaicans have been preoccupied with COVID-19.

“I don’t think anybody is going to give any minister a good score because it’s situational. Look at Biden in America and all the things he’s doing and one or two things dropped his numbers down to nothing because those have a higher impact,” said Hinchcliffe.

The percentage of poll participants who did not know who to name as worst-performing minister more than doubled those who named Chang.

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz was ranked the second worst-performing minister with seven per cent, followed by Transport Minister Audley Shaw with six per cent.

The education, justice and local government ministers were also named as worst performing, each with five per cent.

Four per cent of Jamaicans named Andrew Holness as worst-performing minister, while Edmund Bartlett, Aubyn Hill, Karl Samuda and Olivia Grange were named similarly by two per cent of poll participants.

Holness was assessed independently in a previous poll as prime minister, with 38 per cent ranking his performance as good or very good; 35 per cent as average; and 27 per cent as poor or very poor.