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Same problems, different decade
Published: Friday | October 2, 2009
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Orane
It has been 10 years since Douglas Orane headed a task force mandated by the P.J. Patterson administration to recommend strategies to tidy up the ramshackle public sector in which waste and unwieldy bureaucracy were the order of the day.
However, the challenges which gave Patterson and his government sleepless nights a decade ago mirror those which are currently challenging Prime Minister Bruce Golding and his team.
Orane, and a team of specialists commissioned to prepare the report in 1999, pointed to the same problems besetting the public sector.
At the time, the People's National Party formed the Government, with Patterson at the helm and Dr Omar Davies responsible for finance and planning.
The Orane Report diagnosed that the situation in April 1999 had reached crisis proportions and asserted that it provided a good opportunity for the Government to wind its way out of the mess in which it was mired.
This time around, it's Golding who is in the driver's seat and Audley Shaw has responsibility for finance and the public service.
"The Government has been attempting to reform the public service for the past two decades with little success."
That was the opening line of the executive summary of the Orane task force report prepared in 1999.
Though some time has passed since the recommendations contained in the report titled Reforming the State were released, by all accounts, the Government continues to wrestle with the issue.
Over the past two years since he was ushered into office, Golding has been vocal about the need to change the mindset in the public service to reduce bureaucracy and wastage.
Conserve resources
However, he is not alone in this regard. The Orane Report refers to an address by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to Parliament on November 3, 1998, when he stated that wasteful and inefficient use of resources must cease.
"We cannot enter a new Budget year without tackling these problems," Patterson stated in his address. "We have to ensure that, as a government, we have to get better value for every dollar we spend."
At the time the former prime minister spoke, there was no economic downturn to derail the plans and programmes of his administration, but there was glaring need to address the issues.
The issues have again been brought into sharp focus by the immediate need to reshape the public sector in these challenging times.
The Orane task force, in its report, stated that at the heart of the problem is "a culture of lack of accountability which runs deep within the public sector." However, the report was quick to emphasise that this is not unique to the public sector, as it is a phenomenon that exists throughout the society.
"The force is of the view that unless we can begin to change this deep-seated problem, there can be no meaningful reform at any level in the public sector," the report stated.
gary.spaulding @gleanerjm.com
Golding administration faces challenges addressed by Orane Report in 1999
The Orane Report described the state of affairs in 1999 as a deep crisis, with the manifestation reflecting in:
A large fiscal deficit with little consensus as to its solutions;
Negative economic growth with little consensus as to the solution for regaining growth;
Crime threatening the quality of life of the citizenry and threatening earnings in the tourist industry;
An international capital market that prices emerging market debt at extremely high levels;
A decline in the country's social capital.
Among the recommendations made by Orane and his task force were:
The prime minister should appoint a senior member of the political directorate at Cabinet level to spearhead the drive to have a paradigm shift to increase accountability in the public sector;
The senior member of the political directorate should appoint a small team to implement accountability.
Ministries and government agencies benchmark themselves against comparable public sector entities with best practices elsewhere, both locally and overseas.
A system of evaluation needs to be established in Cabinet whereby each minister and his/her permanent secretary participate in quarterly reviews. The prime minister will need to hold ministers accountable for deliverable performance objectives.
Published: Friday | October 2, 2009
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Orane
It has been 10 years since Douglas Orane headed a task force mandated by the P.J. Patterson administration to recommend strategies to tidy up the ramshackle public sector in which waste and unwieldy bureaucracy were the order of the day.
However, the challenges which gave Patterson and his government sleepless nights a decade ago mirror those which are currently challenging Prime Minister Bruce Golding and his team.
Orane, and a team of specialists commissioned to prepare the report in 1999, pointed to the same problems besetting the public sector.
At the time, the People's National Party formed the Government, with Patterson at the helm and Dr Omar Davies responsible for finance and planning.
The Orane Report diagnosed that the situation in April 1999 had reached crisis proportions and asserted that it provided a good opportunity for the Government to wind its way out of the mess in which it was mired.
This time around, it's Golding who is in the driver's seat and Audley Shaw has responsibility for finance and the public service.
"The Government has been attempting to reform the public service for the past two decades with little success."
That was the opening line of the executive summary of the Orane task force report prepared in 1999.
Though some time has passed since the recommendations contained in the report titled Reforming the State were released, by all accounts, the Government continues to wrestle with the issue.
Over the past two years since he was ushered into office, Golding has been vocal about the need to change the mindset in the public service to reduce bureaucracy and wastage.
Conserve resources
However, he is not alone in this regard. The Orane Report refers to an address by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to Parliament on November 3, 1998, when he stated that wasteful and inefficient use of resources must cease.
"We cannot enter a new Budget year without tackling these problems," Patterson stated in his address. "We have to ensure that, as a government, we have to get better value for every dollar we spend."
At the time the former prime minister spoke, there was no economic downturn to derail the plans and programmes of his administration, but there was glaring need to address the issues.
The issues have again been brought into sharp focus by the immediate need to reshape the public sector in these challenging times.
The Orane task force, in its report, stated that at the heart of the problem is "a culture of lack of accountability which runs deep within the public sector." However, the report was quick to emphasise that this is not unique to the public sector, as it is a phenomenon that exists throughout the society.
"The force is of the view that unless we can begin to change this deep-seated problem, there can be no meaningful reform at any level in the public sector," the report stated.
gary.spaulding @gleanerjm.com
Golding administration faces challenges addressed by Orane Report in 1999
The Orane Report described the state of affairs in 1999 as a deep crisis, with the manifestation reflecting in:
A large fiscal deficit with little consensus as to its solutions;
Negative economic growth with little consensus as to the solution for regaining growth;
Crime threatening the quality of life of the citizenry and threatening earnings in the tourist industry;
An international capital market that prices emerging market debt at extremely high levels;
A decline in the country's social capital.
Among the recommendations made by Orane and his task force were:
The prime minister should appoint a senior member of the political directorate at Cabinet level to spearhead the drive to have a paradigm shift to increase accountability in the public sector;
The senior member of the political directorate should appoint a small team to implement accountability.
Ministries and government agencies benchmark themselves against comparable public sector entities with best practices elsewhere, both locally and overseas.
A system of evaluation needs to be established in Cabinet whereby each minister and his/her permanent secretary participate in quarterly reviews. The prime minister will need to hold ministers accountable for deliverable performance objectives.