Full support needed for transformation project - PSOJ
Published:Monday | October 25, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
A LEADING private-sector body is urging the parliamentary Opposition and other interest groups to embrace the public-sector transformation process.
The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), in its submission to Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) last week, said it was critical that the process be supported not only by the political leadership in the country, but by civil society and the public, in general.
"We just want to make the point that if this is to work, there is going to be the need for a very consistent and strident message from all members of our leadership. It's not just the Government and the Opposition, but the private sector as well," PSOJ representative Peter Melhado told the committee at Gordon House last week. He was making a presentation on the Public Sector Master Rationalisation Plan on behalf of PSOJ President Joseph M. Matalon, who was unavoidably absent.
He said the PSOJ was lending support to the public-sector transformation process and had provided funding for some of the work done to date.
Public input necessary
Government member of parliament Tarn Peralto echoed similar sentiments about the proposed transformation exercise, sayingthat the entire country should participate in the discussions on the Green Paper, with a view to reaching consensus on the recommendations.
"While we are anxious, what we need to do is just slow down to revisit what stage we should be at now and to have that inclusion of private sector, the public at large and all the players, including Government and Opposition, and get that consensus.
"If the public at large, including all of us, have stamped our approval of this direction, then I think the process, whatever it is we imple-ment, would be accepted; and the medicine and the pill that are necessary to be taken now, everybody will be willing to take it."
Compressing ministries
While the Public Sector Master Rationalisation Plan makes recom-mendations concerning the re-focusing of Government ministries, the PSOJ says it notes that there has been no compression in the number of ministries, which it says would allow for even greater efficiency.
But chief executive officer of the Public Sector Transformation Unit (PSTU), Patricia Sinclair McCalla, contended that her unit was not vested with such power to propose changes in this regard.
"I am sure you are fully aware that under Section 77 of the Constitution, only one person, the governor general, acting on the advice of the prime minister, determines in writing the appointment of ministers and the related links in terms of ministries, so that is outside our purview."
Turning to the issue of the privatisation of government entities, the PSOJ said that in the current difficult economic environment, a mixture of price discounting and future-based incentives was important to the expedition of the process.
In its submission, the PSOJ also invited the administration to establish a high-level planning and execution team that is comprised of experts in key areas such as change management, government and technology. This team, the PSOJ added, should stay in place for the duration of the exercise. The private-sector body said it would work with the Government to pull in funding for the critical resources needed.
The group wants someone who is "publicly esteemed", with a proven track record, to lead the planning and execution team. This person should be given a large degree of autonomy and authority to act.
The rationalisation exercise will involve 16 ministries and some 120,000 public-sector employees, making it arguably the largest transformation project undertaken in independent Jamaica.