WE appreciate the candour of the labour and social security minister, Mr Dean Peart, in acknowledging that had the storm drains been cleaned, the damage from the flood rains of the past week would have been less.

But according to Mr Peart, part of the problem was that the seasonal rains came a bit early, before a comprehensive programme of cleaning was implemented.

There were just not the resources for the cleaning, according to the minister.

This is where we part company with Mr Peart. Indeed, the remark underlines a point this newspaper and its sister publications have consistently highlighted: the inability of the administration of Prime Minister P J Patterson to do the little things and get them right.

We are consistently surprised by this assumption, perpetuated, unfortunately, by the Government, that everything in Jamaica, especially involving public works, has to be horribly expensive.

We, for instance, wondered why it had to cost $5.5 million to clean the May Pen Cemetery when what was to be done was basic weeding of scrub and chopping of bushes with unskilled labour.

There are the too many cases, too, of additional allocations of millions of dollars to clean the resort towns when tourism interests complain of the mess that they are in. Taxpayers' money is then spent to do, badly, a job that people were already paid to do.

The problem, it seems to us, is that the Patterson administration is incapable of concentrated effort, especially when it comes to the things that demand attention to detail and follow-up. Or perhaps, they feel so overwhelmed by the big issues that they are perplexed when it comes to day-to-day matters.

How else do you explain the prime minister's periodic lament about the "uglification of Jamaica" and launches of Nice and Clean campaigns, yet the promises to tear down derelict buildings, remove old vehicles from the roads or clean drains never get done, or get done in some half-hearted fashion? People are tempted to believe that the political directorate and the technocrats either get bored or become confused.

Whatever the explanation, we are baffled by the Government's performance in these matters. Why is it beyond a group of men and women, most of whom are well-educated and skilled, to ensure that a job of work gets done? It cannot be beyond their ability to demand performance and to hold people accountable.

Yet, it seems to be the case.

Perhaps Mr Peart and his colleagues should ponder on what it will cost to repair the damage left by the flood rains, the eventual impact on the economy, and compare that against what it would have cost to clean the drains in the first place. Or better, they should analyse the economic cost of the damage against what was paid to people for the jobs that should have been done.

For, the cleaning of drains should not be some special exercise to be undertaken at the onset of the rainy season. It must be a continuous process. People are paid to do it, and others are paid to supervise them.

Maybe it is the way we see ourselves or that we still carry the legacy of a time past, when to have a clean automotive repair facility was to be too sanitised and ideologically impure.

For it can't be that we are just too incompetent. Cleaning drains can't be beyond us.

Except for the views expressed in the columns above, the articles published on this page do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Jamaica Observer.

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