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Golding aims at economic and social recovery
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The new prime minister Bruce Golding appears to be in a hurry to make Jamaica's economic and social recovery a reality in the shortest possible time.
Ken Chaplin
To achieve this objective, he has appointed what is considered a large executive arm of government which includes 18 Cabinet ministers, 11 ministers of state and two parliamentary secretaries to get the job done. He told them in plain language that hard work was crucial to success.
The PNP government left the country in such a poor state in many areas that it requires a great deal of talent and manpower to do the job quickly.
The Cabinet is one of experience blended with youth and it is for the administrative arm - the public service - to be fully and firmly behind the executive. The new minister of finance and the public service Audley Shaw, who will be supported by the young and brilliant Don Wehby and the experienced trade unionist Dwight Nelson as ministers without portfolio, has the most immediate and important job outside of the prime minister. Shaw will have to clean up the financial mess left behind.
He will have to embark on new strategies to deal with the massive debt of $1 trillion which has been bleeding taxpayers and the country. Shaw is also faced with the difficult problem of the $16 million budgetary deficit. He will have to give support to the contractor general and the auditor general in their efforts to stamp out irregularities in the award of government contracts and with accounting problems in ministries and departments highlighted in the annual reports.
Dr Omar Davies, the former minister of finance, has correctly raised the issue of Don Wehby's high connections with GraceKennedy where he has been in charge of the Financial Services Division and achieved tremendous success. Dr Davies was correct to say that Wehby will have access to sensitive financial information concerning the government, and therefore should resign all his positions in the company before taking up the job.
If I know Wehby well, he is a man of high integrity and would in no way take advantage of his position to pass on confidential information to his company. Yet integrity must not only exist but manifestly appear to exist. Incidentally, Danny Williams was an insurance mogul at Life of Jamaica when he was appointed a minister of state in the government of Michael Manley in the 1970s. I do not recall Williams resigning from the company.
A problem of immense complexity that the prime minister will have to tackle - and the earlier the better - is how he is going to deal with certain elements in the public service which the previous government packed with committed activists and supporters who will not particularly be in favour of the new administration.
Judging from my 35 years in the public service, some activists will not want to stay on and are more committed to party than country. Other public servants in sensitive positions and are "party people" will be transferred to non-sensitive posts in the public service. There are a few others who will want to stay on, but have no intention of working hard. Then there are the professionals who will work diligently as if there was no change of government.
Again, there are some public servants who write for the newspapers. One columnist who writes for the Sunday Gleaner and another for the Observer who are employed in high positions in the public service criticised the Jamaica Labour Party when it was in Opposition. Now that the JLP forms the government, it will be interesting to see how the government will treat these columnists. The chief executive officer of the Jamaica Information Service and the press secretary to the prime minister are sensitive positions, and the government may want to place its own people.
Of course, whenever there is a change of government, fanatics in the ruling party have always pressed for people occupying sensitive positions to be transferred immediately. I remember when I was press secretary to Prime Minister Hugh Shearer in 1972 and Michael Manley succeeded him, there was a howl by some PNP activists that I should leave. Indeed, I received several telephone calls asking if I was still there.
I continued for one year and later became press secretary to Edward Seaga and PJ Patterson at different times. I believed it was generally felt I could be trusted and I did not play politics in my job. Whenever party matters came up at meetings, I would leave. Manley would sometimes apologise for politics being brought up in my presence.
It seems to me that a big team is necessary to meet the tremendous challenges ahead which, according to Golding, include:
. Easing the debt the previous governmeent left behind which must be repaid even while we try to improve the delivery of critical services.
. The high level of crime which must be tackled not just at the back-end where it hurts, but at the front-end where it originates.
. The creation of jobs and other economic opportunities so that young people in particular are not confronted with a blank wall of hopelesssness and despair.
. The persistent cry for justice from so many of our people to which we cannot continue to be deaf, and which we must respond to. Justice for every citizen is not a benevolent gift to be bestowed. It is a right that must be guaranteed.
Golding spoke with a passion never heard before from any prime minister.The big team cannot afford to fail.
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The new prime minister Bruce Golding appears to be in a hurry to make Jamaica's economic and social recovery a reality in the shortest possible time.
Ken Chaplin
To achieve this objective, he has appointed what is considered a large executive arm of government which includes 18 Cabinet ministers, 11 ministers of state and two parliamentary secretaries to get the job done. He told them in plain language that hard work was crucial to success.
The PNP government left the country in such a poor state in many areas that it requires a great deal of talent and manpower to do the job quickly.
The Cabinet is one of experience blended with youth and it is for the administrative arm - the public service - to be fully and firmly behind the executive. The new minister of finance and the public service Audley Shaw, who will be supported by the young and brilliant Don Wehby and the experienced trade unionist Dwight Nelson as ministers without portfolio, has the most immediate and important job outside of the prime minister. Shaw will have to clean up the financial mess left behind.
He will have to embark on new strategies to deal with the massive debt of $1 trillion which has been bleeding taxpayers and the country. Shaw is also faced with the difficult problem of the $16 million budgetary deficit. He will have to give support to the contractor general and the auditor general in their efforts to stamp out irregularities in the award of government contracts and with accounting problems in ministries and departments highlighted in the annual reports.
Dr Omar Davies, the former minister of finance, has correctly raised the issue of Don Wehby's high connections with GraceKennedy where he has been in charge of the Financial Services Division and achieved tremendous success. Dr Davies was correct to say that Wehby will have access to sensitive financial information concerning the government, and therefore should resign all his positions in the company before taking up the job.
If I know Wehby well, he is a man of high integrity and would in no way take advantage of his position to pass on confidential information to his company. Yet integrity must not only exist but manifestly appear to exist. Incidentally, Danny Williams was an insurance mogul at Life of Jamaica when he was appointed a minister of state in the government of Michael Manley in the 1970s. I do not recall Williams resigning from the company.
A problem of immense complexity that the prime minister will have to tackle - and the earlier the better - is how he is going to deal with certain elements in the public service which the previous government packed with committed activists and supporters who will not particularly be in favour of the new administration.
Judging from my 35 years in the public service, some activists will not want to stay on and are more committed to party than country. Other public servants in sensitive positions and are "party people" will be transferred to non-sensitive posts in the public service. There are a few others who will want to stay on, but have no intention of working hard. Then there are the professionals who will work diligently as if there was no change of government.
Again, there are some public servants who write for the newspapers. One columnist who writes for the Sunday Gleaner and another for the Observer who are employed in high positions in the public service criticised the Jamaica Labour Party when it was in Opposition. Now that the JLP forms the government, it will be interesting to see how the government will treat these columnists. The chief executive officer of the Jamaica Information Service and the press secretary to the prime minister are sensitive positions, and the government may want to place its own people.
Of course, whenever there is a change of government, fanatics in the ruling party have always pressed for people occupying sensitive positions to be transferred immediately. I remember when I was press secretary to Prime Minister Hugh Shearer in 1972 and Michael Manley succeeded him, there was a howl by some PNP activists that I should leave. Indeed, I received several telephone calls asking if I was still there.
I continued for one year and later became press secretary to Edward Seaga and PJ Patterson at different times. I believed it was generally felt I could be trusted and I did not play politics in my job. Whenever party matters came up at meetings, I would leave. Manley would sometimes apologise for politics being brought up in my presence.
It seems to me that a big team is necessary to meet the tremendous challenges ahead which, according to Golding, include:
. Easing the debt the previous governmeent left behind which must be repaid even while we try to improve the delivery of critical services.
. The high level of crime which must be tackled not just at the back-end where it hurts, but at the front-end where it originates.
. The creation of jobs and other economic opportunities so that young people in particular are not confronted with a blank wall of hopelesssness and despair.
. The persistent cry for justice from so many of our people to which we cannot continue to be deaf, and which we must respond to. Justice for every citizen is not a benevolent gift to be bestowed. It is a right that must be guaranteed.
Golding spoke with a passion never heard before from any prime minister.The big team cannot afford to fail.
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