Beyond economic stability

GOVERNMENT Senator Sherene Golding Campbell opened the Senate’s State of the Nation Debate last Friday by declaring that Jamaica can no longer afford to be satisfied with economic stability, arguing that the country must now urgently turn that foundation into greater productivity and stronger public services that are felt by ordinary Jamaicans. Golding Campbell said the next phase of Jamaica’s development must focus on converting the gains made in achieving macroeconomic and fiscal stability into tangible improvements in income, opportunities, living standards, and wealth, while confronting systems that she said have contributed to low productivity, weak accountability o build on the foundation that has been laid to turn stability into opportunity, resilience into growth, and economic progress into a better quality of life for every Jamaican. And there’s always a challenge, when one is behind the eight ball. And though we have made progress, we could have done so much more in these last 64 years…It means that every single one of us must approach the development of Jamaica with the urgency of borrowed time, as if it is a task we each need to finish before we die,” she said. But she warned that achieving that transformation would require Jamaica to tackle long-standing weaknesses in the public service, particularly the way in which government services are delivered and holding public officers accountable. “There can be no transformation of this nation into the robust and growing economy and productive society that it can be without significant reforms of the public service system in relation to the kinds of services we deliver to our people, how we deliver them, and the systems of accountability and rules that govern those who must deliver those services from the lowest levels to the highest levels,” she said. The senator called for a stronger culture of personal responsibility among public officers, while stressing that she is not suggesting that every public servant performs poorly. Her concern, she said, is with what she described as a systemic problem in the way citizens are served. She pointed to delays in responding to telephone calls, correspondence, and applications as examples of the difficulties Jamaicans can encounter when dealing with the Government. She proposed, among other measures, the establishment of local “knowledge centres” that would allow citizens to obtain information about government services and programmes from a single, accessible location instead of having to visit several agencies to determine what documents or steps are required. She said the centres could take different forms, including physical locations, technology-supported kiosks or online portals. “The Jamaican citizen should not have to navigate the machinery of government. Government should navigate itself on behalf of the citizen,” Golding Campbell said. She also called for greater devolution of decision-making authority within the public service, arguing that routine decisions should not have to move through multiple layers of approval. However, she said greater authority must be accompanied by clear standards and consequences. Golding Campbell also linked public sector pay to performance, arguing that the significant salary adjustments made for public officers in 2022 should have been accompanied by stronger systems for measuring performance. “Improved salaries must walk hand in hand with performance standards. Discussions about improved salaries must be accompanied by talks about performance metrics and how we measure whether the people of Jamaica are getting value for money,” she said. She further called for faster digitisation and greater integration across government, including standardised ministry websites, more accessible application processes and improved publication of public data. The senator argued that citizens and businesses should be able to track applications and obtain information about their status, particularly in areas such as building approvals, land titles, work permits, criminal record expungement, and the administration of estates. She also called for common databases between ministries and agencies so that information already supplied to one government entity can be accessed by another, where necessary, to provide a public service. “A farmer cannot begin to approach financial institutions to fund any investment in his farming business if his land titling process is delayed. A family awaiting the administration of their deceased loved one’s estate, in order to sell property to finance their family business or send children to university, is in limbo until the process is completed,” she said. She argued that the Government should conduct audits of its systems and business processes to identify unnecessary steps, duplication and excessive layers of approval. That argument formed the basis of one of Golding Campbell’s strongest calls for reform — a significant overhaul of Jamaica’s public procurement framework. She argued that procurement should not be focused primarily on procedural compliance at the expense of efficiency, value for money, and timely delivery. “It appears that we managed to convince ourselves that we needed to create a procurement system that was not fit for purpose, not to ensure efficient, fair, and transparent procurement, but to operate as some sort of pseudo-law enforcement system guarding against anyone who would dare fall out of compliance with or defy the burdensome rules and processes we created to ensure that government can really only procure goods and services at high cost with built-in inefficiencies and discretionary powers to procuring entities to further increase delay and cost,” she said. Golding Campbell identified several problems faced by businesses seeking government contracts, including what she described as the absence of a consolidated, up-to-date version of the Procurement Act, incorporating amendments made since the legislation was enacted in 2015. She also argued that the procurement system is too rigid and could result in tenders being cancelled and restarted, increasing costs for both government and businesses. Golding Campbell proposed a less onerous procurement process, accompanied by severe penalties for those who deliberately breach the rules, arguing that the threat of serious consequences could encourage compliance without subjecting every procurement exercise to excessive procedural burdens.