Why increase the number of constituencies?
published: Wednesday | February 11, 2004
THE EDITOR, Sir:
AT A time when both the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance are making it clear that the size of the Civil Service needs to be cut in order to manage increasingly scarce resources, the one thing which seems to be absent is the discussion of reducing the number of government agencies. Several of the many committees that have been commissioned over the years to look at government have advised the reduction of ministries and agencies. This has fallen on deaf ears. The last decade has been filled with news of private sector corporations downsizing their operations by consolidating services or moving out of non-core rolls. Yet no word from the Prime Minister on this matter.
It is against this backdrop that I am surprised at the recommendation by the EAC to increase the number of constituencies by three. The reason given for this is the increased population in some areas which threatens to breach the constitutionally imposed population size of a constituency. How odd it is that the EAC has not recommended a concomitant merging of some constituencies to maintain the number of sixty. Or, very simply recommend the increasing of the maximum size of the constituency as stated in the constitution. This is an arbitrary number which could very easily be changed to decrease the number of constituencies we now have, instead of increasing it. Bear in mind that each additional parliamentarian requires a salary, office and staffing all funded from the public purse. Are the other MPs going to accept a salary reduction in order to increase the number?
The people of Jamaica have heard from successive governments of the need to tighten their belts. It is about time we start demanding that some of this is done by the government itself.
