Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist

PERSAUD

One man's red tape is another's accountability. So goes the saying. Jamaica, take heed.

Should oversight, safety, revenue generation and cost recovery be abandoned, modified, new ones introduced? If so, why?

These are just some of the questions emerging from thoughts on enhancing productivity. The issue is vital and cannot be fully addressed in two 750 word columns. Yet hopefully, the barebones of a strategy might come into view.

This was my thinking last week. Then appeared the blazing-red Sunday Gleaner front page headline: 'Projects Tied Up in Red Tape'. Compliments to the computer application and the graphic artist by the way.

Has a traffic cop stopped you and exclaimed: "Buoy, mi out yah so since mawnin and mi neva have a brekfass?"

At Matilda's Corner, St Andrew has one of two cops on the beat walking slowly through the triple lane of idling cars diligently, furtively, reading licence stickers ever pull you over? Conversation turns to inconvenience of vehicle impound, thousands of dollars in cost and many hours lost. Do the right thing and lose perhaps two days of work.

Indicate that you teach at the Police Staff College or know the police commissioner, 'Trinity', 'Bigga Ford' or Reneto Adams, you may be told to go to the Constant Spring tax office immediately.

If you don't teach at the Police Staff College, don't know high-profile cops and cannot afford lost time, you pay $8,000 then go to the tax office anyway. You lose two hours instead of two days.

Of course, were you a 'big man' in the system none of this could ever faze you. The police would never stop you or, you have a gofer, a yard boy to do all such chores and stand in lines for two days while you take the wife's car, in rare cases the husband's car or the spare car for that matter.

Take another example, a legal clerk or messenger conveys moneys from his employer to clerks in government offices who, for such considerations can arrange all sorts of good time-and-money-saving things to happen for a lawyer's clients. What is wrong with these pictures? Well, they give life to the notion: 'He who plays by the rules gets shafted'. Put differently, they are a raw demonstration of the real rules.

But these pictures are not underexposed. Look carefully, they show the links between red tape, accountability and productivity. Red tape lives in the policeman's ticket book, receipt from the car pound and the agency that collects towing fees. These bits are meant to ensure moneys end up where they should - at accountability.

In the particular case the element of cost recovery is clear - an impound fee pays for the tow truck and rental for space in the facility.

Government revenues must be collected through the licence. Public safety, commercial and legal arrangements are guaranteed by the licensing procedure evidenced by the valid sticker on the windshield of the car.

Everyone knows it is impossible to license a car unless it is deemed fit, road-worthy, by competent authorities; unless a recognised insurance company issues a cover note verifying and guaranteeing insurance coverage and your title to the vehicle is valid.

So you have not stolen the car, relevant customs duties have been duly paid, pedestrians you might injure may be compensated for medical bills. All of these good things are meant to be delivered by means of a valid licence sticker on the windshield. What a simple yet great system.

Bureaucratic procedures

Central Government bureaucratic procedures are meant to achieve similar good things: cost recovery, heritage and environment maintenance, public safety and more. But these regulations can, as parish councils say, lead to 'stifling development'

How do we change for the better and maintain accountability in the face of openly acknowledged corruption? Do productivity gains outstrip corruption costs? Should we increase wages and salaries so officials don't feel the need to extract moneys from the public? Should we do the former and simultaneously implement draconian penalties for corrupt practice? Should we allow greater freedom and self-control, voluntary vehicle insurance, build on own land as a right, dam the river for private fish ponds, sand mining?

This all sounds bizarre, and it is. Since we can't enjoy a 'frontier' economy, regulation is inevitable. If the economy is to grow strong though, eventually a solution must be found.

The solution is simple, straightforward. But it will take unfailing resolve and incur strong political costs. Can we handle it?

Sorry, word count now breached. Discussion of growth, productivity, capital stock estimation and informal sector must wait.

wilbe65@yahoo.com