With the country now into its sixth day without the new government being officially installed following last Monday’s general elections, public concerns have been raised about the delay and its implications for the management of the public sector.

However, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it is relying on the integrity of permanent secretaries to ensure continuity in the public sector during the period leading up to the swearing-in of the new administration this week.

The JLP’s trust was voiced by the party’s deputy leader, Audley Shaw, who is expected to assume the portfolios of finance and the public service when the new Cabinet is sworn in. He was responding to queries from the Sunday Observer about the eight-day wait between last Monday’s general elections and this Tuesday’s swearing-in of Prime Minister-designate Bruce Golding.

“I am reminding the permanent secretaries that it is their duty to ensure that nothing is done by any ministry, or any agency of government, during this period, that would compromise the integrity of the system of governance,” Shaw said.

Shaw said that the permanent secretaries have a strong hand in ensuring that the resources of the country are protected during the transitional period, and warned that the new government will seek a proper accounting from them when it assumes office.

“Under the Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAAA), they are the chief accounting officers, and they are accountable to the Government to ensure that everything is in proper order,” said Shaw. “They must ensure that no abuse of power takes place at this time.”

The JLP won 33 of the 60 parliamentary seats in last Monday’s general elections to end the 18-year rule of the People’s National Party (PNP), which took the remaining 27 seats.

On Thursday, public concern started to surface about the length of time between the elections results and the swearing-in of the new prime minister, and the fact that, without a Cabinet, the outgoing prime minister retains sole authority over the Government in the interim.

But PNP supporters have pointed to the fact that in 2002, former prime minister P J Patterson did not take office until exactly one week after he won the October 16 general elections.

However, Labour Party supporters contend that in 2002 Patterson was continuing in office. In the present case, they argue, this is a change of government from one party to the other. They also pointed out that when the JLP won the 1980 general elections, Edward Seaga was sworn in as prime minister only two days after the October 30 poll.

Regionally, Sir John Compton (who died Friday night) was sworn in as prime minister of St Lucia only four days after his United Workers Party (UWP) won the December 11, 2006 general elections in St Lucia, and St Vincent’s Dr Ralph Gonsalves was sworn in the day after his Unity Labour Party won the 2005 general elections there.

The current situation in Jamaica is aggravated by the crime-plagued post-election period, the dollar racing past the J$70 to US$1 mark, and with $15.5 billion being added to the fiscal budget.

Anthony Irons, former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and senior adviser to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, confirmed Friday that, while the Cabinet no longer exists, the prime minister continues to run the country until she is replaced.

“There is no Cabinet, but there is the prime minister and the cabinet secretary and the permanent secretaries,” he said. “I believe the permanent secretaries can report to the cabinet secretary, who reports to the prime minister.”

Irons also pointed out that very quickly after the prime minister is sworn in, the minister of finance and an attorney-general will also have to be sworn in, given the importance of those offices to the country’s stability.

Former leader of opposition business in the Senate, JLP spokesman Anthony Johnson, said that he was not aware of any other time when there was such a long delay in the swearing in of the prime minister. However, he admitted that the Electoral Commission of Jamaica’s (ECJ’s) current insistence on a seven-day wait between the vote and return of the writs of election to the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) might have contributed.

In a statement last Thursday after the final seat count, Director of Elections Danville Walker pointed out that returning officers must wait seven days after declaring a candidate elected before returning all documents, including the writ of election and the report showing the winner, to him.

It is only after he has received the writ that Walker can gazette the winners’ names, thus enabling appointments to Parliament.