Use the private sector to better Jamaica, says business leader

Influential Business leader Richard Byles is calling for the Government to utilise expertise within the private sector for the benefit of the country.

Speaking at the relaunch of The Gleaner's 10-year-old Editors' Forum series, Byles, president and chief executive officer of Sagicor, admitted there was no easy solution to turning the economy around.

However, he said one thing he thought would serve Jamaica well was qualified private-sector members being seconded to the Government in their area of expertise.

"What we need to do is concentrate on clearing certain bottlenecks that are real impediments to doing business, whether small, medium or large, which are very discouraging to business growth," Byles told those in attendance at the forum held under the theme 'Steering the Ship Called Jamaica - How we Would do it Better'.

"There are lots of good people in civil service who know what is the right thing to do, but they do not have the kind of determined, driving, concentrated, focused leadership to execute," Byles said. "I therefore feel that the private sector needs to step up and volunteer people to go into these areas that the bottlenecks exist, give a two-year period and on the pain of their reputation being tarnished, they need to execute and to do so successfully."

The Sagicor boss said he felt that if someone who was doing a good job in the private sector was told, 'You need to go over and for two years you need to execute on this job and make sure that you succeed because it's on your résumé', the nation would benefit from decisive action and quality performance.

In tackling the thorny issue of the hefty salary packages that would likely be required by persons seconded from outside the government service, Byles said he felt the private sector should continue paying these individuals.

He added: "... and make them know that their performance is how they are going to be measured both in the public sector and when they try to return to the private sector, so they had better perform."

Trust required

Addressing the issue of possible conflicts of interest arising from such an arrangement, he said there needed to be a level of trust and that persons needed to be chosen on the basis of their proven track record and competence.

"If they fit that bill and you run the risk of some conflict of interest, then you do the best to edge around that," Byles said.

Over past decades, administrations of both political parties have utilised experts from within the private sector in various capacities, mainly as consultants.

During the discussions, participants in the forum generally considered Byles suggestion a good idea, but noted that the impact of the private sector were specifically required at the management level.

Byles also noted he believed that to make an impact, what was required was the secondment of 12 to 20 people from the private sector, placed in different areas of the government service.