Laziness, incompetence in public sector must go!

The Editor, Sir:

Butch Stewart is yelling. That's because he says the tourism minister, Ed Bartlett, is yapping and does not understand the oper-ational side of the industry. Well, if he did, maybe he would be your competitor instead of your minister, Mr Stewart!

Perhaps Bartlett is more concerned about the demo-graphics of the industry. He may be taking the position that, in these difficult times worldwide, the more people who come now are the more people who are likely to come back. Keep yapping, Ed.

Stewart also wants the Government to stop borrowing. The Government has actually started to move in that direction. When the Golding administration came to power, the country had experienced almost 20 years in which the productive sector was strangled with high interest rates and Government's insatiable appetite for borrowed money. The previous minister of finance was never so proud as when he could stand in Parliament and declare that he had negotiated another loan. Every bill was settled with borrowed funds attracting high interest rates.

Ineffective public servants

When so much of what we do has depended on borrowed funds for so long, we can't just 'stop borrowing'. We have to be weaned off of it while confidence and infrastructure are rebuilt to restart the productive sector.

May I add my squeaky soprano in support of Mr Stewart's bold baritone when it comes to the ineffectiveness of our public servants. There is a new and welcome intolerance with certain types of misconduct. But the public service is still virtually crippled by laziness and incompetence in certain departments. I was part of a group that worked tirelessly on a project for more than two years. It would have been the largest of its kind in the Caribbean and the demand for it was obvious. Everything was finally in place except one component, which was lying idle all over the country but could only be provided by Government.

We applied - not for any handout - to acquire what was needed. Six months after the application, along with business plan, financial statements, etc., were submitted, I had to resort to creative means to reach the head of that department. Twenty seconds into my opening remarks, he told me that it was "impossible". We could get only 25 per cent of what we required and he stressed we would have to go through "all the right procedures". We agreed.

Performance is not a prerequisite

Four months later, after calling almost daily for some response, a cheerful lady greeted me with the news that a letter was, in fact, sent to me. I sprinted to the post office, got the letter, read and digested the contents carefully. That was not difficult, really, as it was just two lines acknowledging the receipt of my letter. Six months later and 14 months since I submitted my documents, I asked that they be returned. It took five weeks to find them, and what was returned was a barely legible photocopy of most of the business plan. That is just one of several experiences that I can speak about.

Is it asking too much to require that the persons being put into these top positions demonstrate that they have some ability to manage? That they have some vision for moving their department forward? Things are as they are because they know that performance is not a prerequisite for upward mobility or even for holding their present positions.

Government must realise that it does not matter how brilliant their plans and programmes are, if they are not properly and efficiently implemented, it will be the same as giving Usain Bolt a pair of sandals to run the 200 metres. They will not win.

I am, etc.,

Glenn Tucker

glenntucker8@hotmail.com

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