IN HIS call last weekend for an overhaul of how public sector contracts are being awarded, Senator Delano Franklyn seemed more interested in putting the cart before the horse.
In an address at a function honouring several community groups in Portmore last Saturday, Mr. Franklyn suggested that Members of Parliament, councillors or mayors needed to be properly insulated from the process so that there would be no suspicion of them exerting undue and inappropriate influence.
Ironically, Senator Franklyn did not seem to be as concerned to address the reality of established pork barrel politics in the awarding of contracts. Perhaps on reflection, the senator would appreciate that the public's disquiet is based on more than 'an impression' of corruption. As someone not far removed from the political runnings, Mr. Franklyn should surely have been better able to address the many instances of contracts going to connected partisans and of cost overruns seemingly exacerbated by frequent bypassing of established procedures.
It is not an issue about which he or any member of the audience gathered to recognise the work of the community groups would likely have been ignorant.
Notwithstanding what we see as his misplaced priority of concern over the integrity of MPs and councillors, the call for an overhaul is one which we can endorse. In fact, it is a call that we have repeatedly made in the wake of the annual reports from the Contractor-General and the Auditor-General.
The latest report from the Contractor-General that focused on the Kingston and St. Andrew and Portmore municipalities was but one more in a long series highlighting the same problems throughout local and central government.
The upshot is that there has been the lack of political will for politicians to divorce themselves from the process because they would, in effect, be undermining their own ability to manipulate the public.
Indeed, we suggest while there may be need to attach new features to the wheel, it need not be reinvented. There are already clear guidelines for a public tendering process for public contracts. There is a need, however, for a broadening of the panel of persons who must make the final decision as to who should be awarded which contract. Far too frequently a majority of public sector projects end up in the hands of persons who have close ties with the governing People's National Party. Recent reports from the KSAC suggest that the JLP-controlled council is determined to continue the tradition to the advantage of its partisans.
So an overhaul of the system is long past due, but we need not be detained with concerns that this should be aimed at lessening public cynicism and suspicion over the role of public officers. The aim should be to deliver to the public good quality service, in a transparent manner devoid of corruption.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
