Cut the bloated whatnot!

[Willi]

Take the knife to mega Cabinet

Published: Friday | February 22, 2013

Jerome A.L. Gander, Contributor

Portia Simpson Miller was like a petchary bird in Bruce Golding's back. Cut your oversize Cabinet, she would tell him, urging the then prime minister to lead by example in lowering the carrying cost of Government. In fact, even when Golding and other government MPs opted for a pay cut, Simpson Miller said it was tokenism and demanded that he go further. Cut the Cabinet, she insisted.

"You cannot ask the country for cooperation, Mr Prime Minister, when you continue to retain your mega-size Cabinet. I'm calling on the prime minister to do the honourable thing: Cut the size of the Cabinet now!" she said in September 2009.

Well, as Prime Minister, Simpson Miller has imposed on Jamaicans one of the biggest Cabinets in the country's history, and after more than a year we are yet to see the need for such a large executive, it is time to take out the shear.

These are the cuts I propose to help Mrs Simpson Miller.

Portia Simpson Miller - prime minister and minister of defence, development, information and sports.

Dr Peter Phillips - finance, planning and the public service.

A.J. Nicholson - foreign affairs and foreign trade. (Send A.J. into retirement
and move up Arnaldo Brown).

Peter Bunting - national security.

Ronald Thwaites - Education (add youth and culture to portfolio).

Lisa Hanna - youth and culture (No need for this ministry; plus, the minister could do well with the experience of the backbench).

Robert Pickersgill - water, land, environment and climate change (no need for this dinosaur, who brings nothing special to legislation or policy).

Dr Fenton Ferguson - health (should take on environment).

Anthony Hylton - industry, investment and commerce.

Mark Golding - justice.

Derrick Kellier - labour and social security.

Noel Arscott - local government and community development.

Dr Omar Davies - transport, works and housing (should take on water and climate change).

Dr Wykeham McNeill - tourism and entertainment.

Phillip Paulwell - science, technology, energy, and mining.

Roger Clarke - agriculture and fisheries (Replace him with Fitz Jackson).
Ministers Without Portfolio

Dr Morais Guy - transport, works and housing (housing).

Sandrea Falconer - Office of the Prime Minister (Information) (Hand responsibility to Dalley or Guy).

Horace Dalley - finance, planning and public service (public service).

Natalie Neita-Headley - OPM (sports) (Was always an unnecessary Cabinet position and a drain on the public purse).

Ministers of State
(Having a junior minister in the following ministries is a waste of taxpayers' dollars in the very beginning. The backbench beckons).

Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams - industry, investment and commerce (no need for junior minister in this ministry).

Ian Hayles - water, land, environment and climate change (With the abolition of this ministry, the junior minister post becomes redundant. To the backbench, Mr Hayles!).

Colin Fagan - local government and community development (Having a junior minister in this ministry is a waste of taxpayers' dollars. The backbench beckons).

Richard Azan - transport, works and housing - (Having a junior minister in this ministry is a waste of money).

Damion Crawford - tourism and entertainment (Enough partying from Damion, to the extent that all he does is sleep in Parliament. Added to that, to have had a junior minister in this ministry was a waste of taxpayers' dollars).

Julian Robinson - mining, energy and ICT.

Luther Buchanan -- OPM.

Hopefully, Prime Minister Simpson Miller will have a heart for the people of Jamaica, and have the nerve to stand up to her Comrades and say to them, I am sorry, but Jamaica can't afford your expenses any longer. We can barely afford a hassock, much less a mega-size Cabinet.

Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

[Willi]

Still too many full Ministers at 15 in total.

[Lazie]

Clearly Jerome is seeking to be labelled an enemy of the state.

[Bricktop]

Mi hear Portia a cuss di Jamaican people on tv last night...she seh every Jamaican want to sign an IMF agreement but none of us want to sacrifice...mi nearly spit out mi Milo to rhattid...

[Sir X]

Vote dem out and when Labour come in , vote dem out too until dem deal wid ....Problems have been identified, what are they doing about production

1) Tourism and bauxite,slashes in social service cant pay for our fuel cost, solution we need a productive export sector.

2) Corruption ranked as a problem over crime, we rank poorly on the international corruption index, the man labelled with the flimsy evidence by his adversaries and the dpp,The dpp has rejected 40 cases for prosecution.Solution we need to gives powes to all corruption investigative agencies to pursue every lead with flimsy evidence.

3) Crime , well its obvious its linked to the two above , no production/work leaves idle hands who deal in corruption that lead to crime,give people a productive job and prosecute corruption or we can continue to let the police extrajudicial kill them and let corruption continue or better yet, blame ganja,

4)Tax increase,no production will lead to high inflation, more corruption and crime, but alas we can blame it all on ganja.

4 key problems have been identified, how the imf will help,if we seriously address 2 out of these we are on the way because they are intracably linked to growth, i would start with corrution and production.

Vote dem out

[Sir X]

ooh my laawd , cluless , clueless,clueless, vote dem out .

Problems have been identified, what are they doing about production

1) Tourism and bauxite,slashes in social service cant pay for our fuel cost solution we need a productive export sector.

2) Corruption ranked as a problem over crime, we rank poorly on the international corruption index, the man labelled with the flimsy evidence by his adversaries and the dpp,The dpp has rejected 40 cases for prosecution.Solution we need to gives powes to all corruption investigative agencies to pursue every lead with flimsy evidence.

3) Crime , well its obvious its linked to the two above , no production/work leaves idle hands who deal in corruption that lead to crime,give people a productive job and prosecute corruption or we can continue to let the police extrajudicial kill them and let corruption continue or better yet, blame ganja,

4)Tax increase,no production will lead to high inflation, more corruption and crime, but alas we can blame it all on ganja.

4 key problems have been identified, how the imf will help,if we seriously address 2 out of these we are on the way because they are intracably linked to growth, i would start with corrution and production.

Vote dem out

[Lazie]

Mi hear Portia a cuss di Jamaican people on tv last night...she seh every Jamaican want to sign an IMF agreement but none of us want to sacrifice...mi nearly spit out mi Milo to rhattid...

Bricktop, I heard it on the news yesterday and had to laugh. Other leaders that meet objections to proposed ideas try to explain the reasons for such a move. It's as if she is ready to cuss anyone that don't accept everything that her gov't says.

This is Jamaica's PM? Joke thing.

[Hortical]

She is a clueless clown....joke ting

[Karl]

When Portia was at Bruce's throat for reduction in his cabinet...I said in effect that it was just silly political drivel! ...now this writer and others are doing same to Portia it is still silly political drivel!

I do not care too hoots what the PM's Cabinet looks like but I sure as hell care about its achievements. Just do good work...move the country rapidly..."rapidly" mi seh...FORWARD!!!!

If you cannot - setp aside!!! Plain and simple!!!

[Willi]

It seems like that is the only remedy...tun dem over till dem learn.
PNP would lose if elections called now and if we wait 6 months at this rate, they would be slaughtered. However, we have no guarantee that we wouldnt be swapping black dawg fi monkey. Dibby and dibbier.

[Willi]

She includes herself in those ranks?

[Sir X]

To comment on it directly , the borrowing mentality is ingrained to the point where even the capacity to borrow or terms draconian ,its the only option they see, funny thing is i would not be surprised if the masses can relate or not so funny.

[Willi]

Now yuh talking!

When you look at some of the nondescripts in the whatnot, what yuh seh? STEPPPPPP?

[Hortical]

Boss be objective fi one day nuh? What has she done to reduce the size of the bloated gov't & other benefits for the Cabinet?

[Willi]

People on the street know better X.

The IMF agreements is to get Babylon off the back. If yuh dont, yuh get the Haitian style ostracization. So yuh sign it to BUY time. HOWEVAH, yuh muss have a plan going forward as the IMF deal will soon turn into an anchor round the neck of the economy, if we dont get limber and outsprint its nefarious aspects.