Columns Thursday, February 04, 2010 I distrust hearsay

[Karl]

Columns
Thursday, February 04, 2010

I distrust hearsay and second-hand reports, preferring to see and hear for myself, especially when politics is involved. So I dropped everything to sit in front of the TV for the parliamentary debate on terms and conditions of the IMF deal. Additionally, a media house had billed it as offering "fireworks" and I love a good display. One minister rushing to Parliament said, "There may be fireworks, but hopefully no fire." Well, what I caught was good. Dr Peter Phillips and the prime minister were in fine form.

Phillips was devoid of overacted drama. Stressing the importance of symbolism, he insisted the prime minister deliver on his reduced Cabinet promise. I hear it will come but awaits the Public Sector Transformation Committee's report. That will guide decisions regarding how ministries and agencies can be consolidated so as to effect proper functioning while reducing the burden on the public purse. With consolidation of ministries some state ministers should have some real work.

Dr Phillips spoke about the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX) in a manner which resonated with me. I have been "chawing fire" about it. Having diligently worked, saved and invested, I now feel exposed and vulnerable to the vagaries of politicians who, without stringent controls and measures, may just decide to "run wid it" once again and leave hard-working Jamaicans to pick up the tab. Listening to the new financial secretary recently confirmed my fears of figures being manipulated and massaged to meet IMF conditionalities.

It is precisely because I realise "creative accounting" can be used to satisfy the IMF that at a meeting with one of my bankers I insisted on the financial sector playing an important role in keeping the government honest. One day after that conversation I noticed Keith Duncan expressed similar sentiments. "If fish from riva bottom seh shark down deh, believe him." Keith Duncan and Wesley Hughes know infinitely more about high finance than I do. Listening to them I need to be assured that this government will not make me a pauper before I die.

Why should those of us who struggled to scrimp and save now seem to be penalised? I could have holidayed on the French Riviera, gone skiing in Switzerland or rolled the dice in Vegas. Instead, I choose to engage in less expensive, albeit less glamorous pastimes and despite having visited Vegas several times have gambled only once, with the extent of that being slot machines. At my family business of almost 30 years, we practise fiscal prudence and reinvest company profits and interest earnings to stay ahead of the competition. Not all of us who bought government papers simply stayed home and read our bank statements.

This brings me to the matter of TRUST of which Phillips spoke in an insightful manner as he noted the negative effects of the JDX on investor confidence. The JLP will find no mercy if it erodes the trust of the people of Jamaica. While the cerebral part of me understands that the JDX is a necessary evil, the emotional part warns me to watch out! In watching, I await the Cabinet cut and other reductions in government expenditure. Government officials frequently find ways to "beat the system" and operate in the shades of grey to line their own pockets and live large and lavish.

Even as I applaud Dr Phillips for his thoughtful and mature presentation, the prime minister was not to be outdone. He set the right tone by quickly quieting his "rabble". Noticeably, the Opposition leader too had to quiet her "noise makers". Too often the cross-talk in Parliament is counterproductive and important matters get trivialised. Giving a perspective which spanned 37 years, the PM correctly laid out the context, so critical to objective analysis.

Listening to the way he framed the discourse gave me hope, but only a glimmer. Politics is about winning elections and sometimes what seems unacceptable to me, a non-politician, compromises are made in the greater interest of electoral victory. In submitting to the desire to win, everything else becomes secondary with truth and trust as mere inconveniences. Dr Phillips is right. We need to "collectively grasp the challenge to find a new way". Somehow I am not convinced we will.

In a similar manner that the prime minister's instinct tells him some will choose to score political mileage at the expense of the greater good of Jamaica, so it is with my own instinct about the Cabinet downsizing. The ones who should be axed will likely remain and perhaps even get promoted. I look forward to being wrong and to experiencing a groundswell of trust and substantially more than a glimmer of hope for my country. The PM is quite capable of delivering on this.


Marcia Forbes is a media specialist and director of Phase Three Productions Limted. marciaforbes@hotmail.com

[Karl]

Who are you calling a 'Free Rider'?

Who are you calling a 'Free Rider'?
TAMARA SCOTT-WILLIAMS

Sunday, January 31, 2010



The Jamaica Debt Exchange Programme (JDX) asks that investors voluntarily exchange their existing bonds issued by the Government of Jamaica in the domestic market for new bonds with longer investment periods at slightly lower interest rates.

GOLDING... instructed Cabinet in January 2008 to curtail expenditure


GOLDING... instructed Cabinet in January 2008 to curtail expenditure

1/1

If you hold eligible Domestic Securities and choose not to participate in the JDX, the Government stated that it "may pursue fiscal measures including taxation as a matter of basic fairness in order to prevent 'free riders'."

Allow me to register a protest of the term used by the Government of Jamaica to describe members of the hard-working, investing public who opted not to commit their funds beyond the contracted maturity date, but instead seek to honour their scheduled financial commitments for which the investment was intended.

The Government has called this group 'free riders'.

On the face of it, a "free rider" is someone who obtains something for nothing, at no cost and with no effort. In other words, a free rider is an idler, a slacker, a scrounger, a user, a sponger and a no-good parasite who is unpatriotic too. (The completion of the exchange is estimated to save the Government approximately J$40 billion in annual interest costs if fully subscribed.)

But that's an emotional and simplistic interpretation of an everyday term.

The term 'free rider', when used in the context of an economics framework, refers to those who consume more than their fair share of a public resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the cost of its production. Free-riding, according to Wikipedia, is usually considered to be an economic "problem" only when it leads to the non-production or under-production of a public good, or when it leads to the excessive use of a common property resource.

A free rider, for example, is someone who rides the bus without paying their fare. In other words, an idler, a slacker, a scrounger, a user, a sponger or a no-good parasite. If too many people become 'free riders', the system will not have enough money to operate.

In light of the current "Ban' Yuh Belly" campaign where the repayment of the public's hard-earned investment is being deferred, why should our leaders and great defenders be allowed to become 'free riders'?

While asking the people of Jamaica to undertake severe cutbacks, the Government is forging ahead and on occasion spending taxpayers' money willy-nilly, as well as wasting golden opportunities to make money. Need examples?

A clear example is the recent burning of two million sticks of contraband cigarettes which -- as it is considered to be a high-revenue item -- if sold would have yielded the Government some $40 million in street value. Talk about money going up in smoke.

Another example, as reported by the Auditor General, is the gross extravagance in the expenditure of the National Health Fund (NHF) with its management openly flouting public sector guidelines to purchase first-class plane tickets ($405,000), pay gym fees and home Internet bills, and use $750,000 of NHF money to purchase $20,000 per pop 'diamond' tickets for staff members, management and board members to attend a celebrity benefit concert.

Then there was the Ministry of Tourism's $38-million bill for rental of the Praise Building in Montego Bay, which remained unoccupied for one year. There was too, the $8 million that was spent to retrofit the honourable minister's suite at the New Kingston headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism -- a figure which may or may not have included some $150,000 for blinds and $80,000 spent on a chair for a minister who spends so little time pushing paper at a desk that he hardly needs a chair at all.

Let us not forget the Finsac Enquiry, which is expected to cost some $80 million including amounts for a chairman who is to be paid $15 million (or US$2,400 per day, for 70 "man days").

And while I am on the subject of expenditure, I am sure Jamaicans would love to know who's paying for the $272-million accumulated operating loss incurred by the Government-controlled company managing the multi-billion-dollar Harmony Cove luxury resort project in Trelawny, which includes $52 million in non-essential travel and accommodation expenses.

While the above amounts, which total $439 million, may sound like chump change for a government seeking to save $40 billion in interest payments, it would have more than covered the $12 million they sought from international donor agencies to finance the Haitian relief effort undertaken by the Jamaica Defence Force and the millions more that it will need to care for the refugees expected to show up on our shores.

Given the severe economic crisis that this country is in, the reckless and wanton spending of taxpayers' money and name-calling demonstrate the lack of respect for the Jamaican people who pay their taxes and want to pay their bills. And what with the prime minister's January 2008 instruction to Cabinet to curtail expenditure, it suggests a lack of respect for him too.

scottwill@cwjamaica.com

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Tamara-Jan-31

[Mosiah]

Bruce is devoid of the basic decencies of a human being. The sooner we realise that the better for us all.

[Karl]

politician = a bred dat tek people fi fools!