Norman Grindley /Deputy Chief Photographer
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller speaking at the PNP NEC meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston in June last year.

Phyllis Thomas, Enterprise Editor

Although several ministries initially reduced the number of consultants on hire in keeping with the recommendations of a 2003 report, some have gone back to the number they had previously. Others have rehired consultants/advisers, though they are not back to the original numbers.

The Ministry of Finance, for example, which had 13 consultants/ advisers in 2003, reduced the number to six in 2004, but by the following year, it started hiring again, and as at March 2006, had a complement of 10. The Ministry of National Security's six consultants were reduced to five, but leaped to 10 in 2006.

Whereas the then Ministry of Land and Environment engaged just one consultant in 2003, parting company with that person in 2004, and remained without one for the year after that, it had three of them as at March 2006.

Exceptions

The exceptions are the ministries of Labour and Social Security, Local Government, the then Transport and Works Ministry, as well as the Office of the Prime Minister, which have all maintained a reduction.

The Government had all but pacified an agitated public which was peeved at the $326.73 million it was spending annually on remuneration for 144 consultants and advisers in the public sector. Then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, in the aftermath of the furore, instructed Cabinet Secretary Dr. Carlton Davis to review the appointments of consultants/ advisers. Chief among the recommendations made by Dr. Davis was that each permanent secretary should be asked to review the complement of consultants/advisers within each ministry, with a view to eliminating redundant or marginal persons.

This resulted in a shrinking of this category of workers in ministries from 76 in 2003, to 49 in 2004. Consultants in the parastatals (statutory corporations and government companies) were cut from 68 to 46.

Lid on spending

Data in the official documents also revealed tha there was an upward trend in the engagement of consultants, the Government has been able, generally, to put a lid on to its spending on 115 such persons in the public sector. As at March 30, 2006, these consultants were costing the Government $210 million, reflecting a reduction when compared to the 2003 spending of $326.73 million; but there was a marginal increase over 2005, when the figure was $195.7 million.

Even so, the Government will not get a headache over this situation. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has justified the employment of some of the consultants. In Ministry Paper No.24/2006, which reports on the engagement of consultants and advisers in the public sector up to March 30, 2006, the Prime Minister explains that the Ministry of National Security engaged persons to perform in areas of national security and intelligence; legal advice to the head of the Counter-Narcotics Task Force; information technology; community safety and security, and general administration and coordination.

With regard to the then Ministry of Land and the Environment, the Prime Minister said that "two consultants were engaged to work on the GOJ/UNITAR National Integrated Chemicals and Waste Management Project, and one on land-management issues".

When the public aired its disapproval of the numerous consultants employed in government, of the 68 who were employed by the parastatals, Fiscal Services Limited employed 22 as information technology specialists, each being compensated at an average of $5.7 million a year.

Steady reduction

But Fiscal Services, which is a Government-owned information-technology company, has had a steady reductionsince then, and had 10 consultants on its records up to March last year. The National Environment and Planning Agency, which initially had only two, employed 16 last year, and JAMPRO (now Jamaica Trade and Invest), which had only one, increased its stock to five.

Simpson Miller acknowledged that NEPA "contributed in a significant way" to this increase in the number of persons employed by parastatals. However, she noted that 14 of them were engaged to work on the production of development orders for the parishes of Portland and Trelawny. "As members of this House would appreciate, these development orders are necessary for the orderly, efficient and sustainable development of the country," she noted in the report.

phyllis.thomas@gleanerjm.com

No. of consultants/advisers currently employed by central covernment compared to previous years

Ministries - March 2006 March 2005 March 2004 July 2003