Beverly Anderson -Manley
DURING THIS Budget season, it is appropriate once again to question how Government spends our money and to focus, therefore, on waste in the public sector and how we can use our resources more wisely.
Successive governmental ad-ministrations have grappled with the problem of creating a modern, efficient and effective public sector that is accountable to the people of Jamaica. The vision should be for a public sector and political directorate that operates like a successful corporation taking responsibility for its actions and being accountable to its shareholders - the taxpayers of Jamaica. In keeping with this vision, the political directorate must set the standard and embody this vision of taking responsibility and being accountable.
There were different task forces that addressed this issue specifically in the 1990s. They included the Stowe Report, headed by Sir Kenneth Stowe of 1991. Then there was the Jenkins Report of 1994; the Orane report of 1998, as well as the Moses Report brought about by the gas riots of 1999.
OPEN TO NEW POSSIBILITIES
This is in keeping with the fact that countries throughout the world that are interested in delivering policies and programmes to the majority of their population must be prepared to open themselves up to new possibilities that can result in transforming the lives of their citizens. These are countries that are willing to accept that the old paradigms through which they see the world no longer apply to today's realities. Hence, the structure of government and the competencies of the public sector must adapt to the changing times. Successful countries have competent bureaucracies.
"CULTURE OF INACTION"
One of the critical areas emphasised in the reports of the 1990s is to do with what Orane refers to as a "culture of inaction."
This report on waste in the public sector reminds us inter alia that "there is a lack of accountability throughout the public sector including the top echelons of the public sector and the political directorate." Pointing to the "culture of inaction," the report notes that "in practice (there is) a culture of lack of accountability (that) runs deep within the public sector. The report notes further that "this is not unique to the public sector, as it is a phenomenon that exists throughout our society (and) it is not possible for the existing culture of inaction to change unless the issue of top management accountability is addressed frontally because that is the final point of accountability. This requires substantial political courage."
Orane also quotes from the Stowe report of 1991 and reminds us why there is this "culture of inaction" around the issues of accountability. It states that "the problem lies at the centre and top of the Government of Jamaica - and here there is a void, a black hole, where there should be authority and skill, command and control. That, in our judgement, is what is wrong."
Four years earlier (in 1994), the Jenkins Report (as quoted in the Orane report) gets even more to the point of why successive governmental administrations have not had the courage to deal with this "culture of inaction" and to put mechanisms of accountability in place with the appropriate sanctions for non-compliance.
POLITICAL STUMBLING BLOCKS
It states that "there are two major political stumbling blocks. The first is that the Government is not sure how to achieve successful implementation of its policy. The second is that as individuals, rather than as a government, they do not like the full implications of the policy. It will inevitably reduce employment, limit patronage and involve changing or abolishing established institutions which may well be politically unpopular."
These reports should be dusted off and looked at with new eyes by the Portia Simpson Miller administration. The PM is emphasising the need for politicians and the bureaucracy to take responsibility and to be accountable. What is needed now is the courage to implement, bearing in mind that: "Accountability is taking responsibility before the fact rather than after the fact. When those who are accountable are right, they take the credit; when they are wrong, they take the heat".
Beverley Manley is a
political scientist,
transformation coach and
gender specialist. Email: BManley@kasnet.com
