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EDITORIAL - The PM's Divestment Of Leadership
Published: Wednesday | April 17, 2013
Leadership is often a difficult, lonely process that is not given to being franchised out.
But judging from her handling of the Richard Azan debacle, this is a concept that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller does not find opportune, at this time, to embrace. The PM, instead, uses her Cabinet as insulation.
Maybe she didn't think deeply about it, but Mrs Simpson Miller, by her action, is likely creating a moral hazard for herself. In the future, should she, in her sole discretion, contemplate revoking the appointment of a member of the executive, that person may well ask for the 'Azan Procedure'. Let the Cabinet decide.
It may not, in the circumstance, be as ridiculous as it would otherwise seem for the prime minister to canvass the Cabinet about the shuffling of portfolios, about which there is current speculation.
Richard Azan, we remind, is the minister of state in the transport, works and housing ministry. He is also the parliamentary representative for North West Clarendon, where the town of Spaldings is located.
Several months ago, Mr Azan, using authority he doesn't legally possess, issued a directive for the construction and rental of shops at the Spaldings Market. Mr Azan's constituency office, apparently with his full knowledge, acted as the rent-collection agency.
The Clarendon Parish Council, on whose property the shops were built, was ignorant of the deal, which it, in an unseemly scramble later, sought to regularise. These affairs are the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).
But whatever the outcome of these investigations, it is foregone that Mr Azan breached the Government's procurement rules and operated outside the accepted norms of governance. There have been calls for either his resignation or his termination as state minister.
Neither has happened. If he were to be fired, that would mean Mrs Simpson Miller invoking Section 71 4(b) of the Constitution by having the governor general revoke Mr Azan's appointment. Indeed, ministerial appointments are the sole discretion of prime ministers. Governors general affirm them in accordance with the advice of prime ministers.
YIELDING RESPONSIBILITY
In the Azan case, Mrs Simpson Miller abrogated that responsibility. Instead, it was the Cabinet that made, or she caused to make, the decision.
Said a statement by the Office of the Prime Minister on the issue: "Cabinet notes that the issues are not directly related to the duties of Mr Richard Azan as minister of state in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing. Pending receipt of the report of the OCG, he will continue in his position."
So, there is a circling of the political wagons, festooned with the implied logic that Mr Azan will neither be hampered from carrying out his official duties because of the investigation, nor is he in a position to impinge on its fairness.
But Mrs Simpson Miller, and her Cabinet, miss a substantial point here: there can be no such discrete compartmentalisation of government and, more important, governance. It is the corrosive idea of politics as a conduit for patronage that lends to the kind of ministerial arbitrariness and usurpation of authority displayed by Mr Azan.
We expect our prime minister to rise above, not to seek refuge in, the political crowd, which is what Mrs Simpson Miller appears to have done.
EDITORIAL - The PM's Divestment Of Leadership
Published: Wednesday | April 17, 2013
Leadership is often a difficult, lonely process that is not given to being franchised out.
But judging from her handling of the Richard Azan debacle, this is a concept that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller does not find opportune, at this time, to embrace. The PM, instead, uses her Cabinet as insulation.
Maybe she didn't think deeply about it, but Mrs Simpson Miller, by her action, is likely creating a moral hazard for herself. In the future, should she, in her sole discretion, contemplate revoking the appointment of a member of the executive, that person may well ask for the 'Azan Procedure'. Let the Cabinet decide.
It may not, in the circumstance, be as ridiculous as it would otherwise seem for the prime minister to canvass the Cabinet about the shuffling of portfolios, about which there is current speculation.
Richard Azan, we remind, is the minister of state in the transport, works and housing ministry. He is also the parliamentary representative for North West Clarendon, where the town of Spaldings is located.
Several months ago, Mr Azan, using authority he doesn't legally possess, issued a directive for the construction and rental of shops at the Spaldings Market. Mr Azan's constituency office, apparently with his full knowledge, acted as the rent-collection agency.
The Clarendon Parish Council, on whose property the shops were built, was ignorant of the deal, which it, in an unseemly scramble later, sought to regularise. These affairs are the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).
But whatever the outcome of these investigations, it is foregone that Mr Azan breached the Government's procurement rules and operated outside the accepted norms of governance. There have been calls for either his resignation or his termination as state minister.
Neither has happened. If he were to be fired, that would mean Mrs Simpson Miller invoking Section 71 4(b) of the Constitution by having the governor general revoke Mr Azan's appointment. Indeed, ministerial appointments are the sole discretion of prime ministers. Governors general affirm them in accordance with the advice of prime ministers.
YIELDING RESPONSIBILITY
In the Azan case, Mrs Simpson Miller abrogated that responsibility. Instead, it was the Cabinet that made, or she caused to make, the decision.
Said a statement by the Office of the Prime Minister on the issue: "Cabinet notes that the issues are not directly related to the duties of Mr Richard Azan as minister of state in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing. Pending receipt of the report of the OCG, he will continue in his position."
So, there is a circling of the political wagons, festooned with the implied logic that Mr Azan will neither be hampered from carrying out his official duties because of the investigation, nor is he in a position to impinge on its fairness.
But Mrs Simpson Miller, and her Cabinet, miss a substantial point here: there can be no such discrete compartmentalisation of government and, more important, governance. It is the corrosive idea of politics as a conduit for patronage that lends to the kind of ministerial arbitrariness and usurpation of authority displayed by Mr Azan.
We expect our prime minister to rise above, not to seek refuge in, the political crowd, which is what Mrs Simpson Miller appears to have done.
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