LIKE everyone else in the world, I was appalled to hear that the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in the US had not objected to the second Texas-based Ebola victim’s request to fly between Cleveland and Texas. It also came to light that the CDC had not responded adequately to the first Ebola victim in Texas, who flew in from Liberia.

This sort of incompetence by the organisation that many persons globally are looking to for guidance, and ultimate protection, is in my view unacceptable. This is even worse than the way our own Ministry of Health bungled the CHIKV situation, which has already potentially cost the country over 12 million man hours and possibly billions of dollars in productivity. At a time when we can ill afford it, and as seen in the fiscal numbers, revenues are underperforming budget.

I am, however heartened, as I indicated last Sunday, about the way that the prime minister seems to be approaching and handling the impending Ebola threat, and am also pleased with the opposition’s approach that they will fully support the Government in its effort to prevent any negative effects of Ebola. Similarly, I am aware that the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ) and the PSOJ, under the leadership of Shane Alexis and Chris Zacca, respectively, have taken an active role in supporting the Government in its efforts, also. In fact the MAJ and PSOJ are now planning an educational public forum on Ebola, in support of Government efforts.

The government has also made plans to ensure that we have enough equipment and capacity, through training and consultation, to handle any situation that may arise. The government, also in the fight against CHIKV, has made available more funds for clean-up etc, although still not enough, but understandable given our meagre resources.

Here, I want to address what I consider to be a very important point. I have seen the many comments in print, and also on social media, about how inadequate the planning is and the handling of CHIKV, and that the Government should be doing more to address both CHIKV and Ebola preparedness.

What I want to say to all Jamaica is, there is no amount of planning and resources that the Government can make regarding these two diseases, that will help unless, as the Prime Minister and Opposition say, we all take personal responsibility. I have seen some very irresponsible comments by persons on social media, that seek to put all the responsibility at the feet of the authorities, and I think how stupid some of these comments are.

I am even more convinced that we in Jamaica have developed too much of a welfare mentality, when I saw the results of beach cleanup day and the recent CHIKV clean-up, where piles and piles of garbage could be seen. As far as I am concerned, the garbage must have gotten there by persons who have no respect for themselves or their surroundings, throwing it in the gullies or on the streets. I have also written that I have been driving in traffic and have seen persons wind down their window and just throw garbage onto the street.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who does this is the lowest life on earth, because you must be to feel satisfied living in filth.

This matter of personal responsibility is something I wrote about last Sunday, but I think given the circumstances, needs to be repeated.

Economic performance

While we face these health threats, we must also keep our eye on the economic performance. I realise that the health issues are more imminent threats, but at the end of the day we must ensure that we keep sight of the prize of economic prosperity.

The finance minister is reported recently as saying that the tax authorities must ensure greater compliance, in an effort to shore up fiscal revenues, which have been underperforming budgeted figures.

Every year, around September, we always start to see fiscal revenues slipping, as the targets get more aggressive, and the fact is that if the economy is seeing low levels of inflation and low growth rates, then fiscal revenues will not increase significantly, as businesses will not grow.

Therefore, in order to improve the fiscal revenues, the ultimate determinant of that is faster growth, and improved economic activity. Over the past few months and weeks, productivity has been affected by the drought conditions and then the CHIKV illnesses, so as I said above, GDP would have been negatively impacted by both events, in a very significant way. The result of that will of course be lower fiscal revenues, as the main component is tax.

I do support the call by the minister for increased compliance, and in all my roles I publicly and privately support the TAJ in improving tax compliance as I think that there are still too many persons out there who do not pay their fair share.

What I want to remind us of, though, is that even with increased ax compliance, if there is no significant growth and improvement in economic activity, then real fiscal revenue growth is unsustainable. Especially if we want to keep inflation rates low and our exchange rate stable. The only way to get improvements in fiscal revenues, while maintaining low inflation, a stable exchange rate, and improving standard of living, is by growing the economy.

Again I support the minister’s call for increased tax compliance, as it is only through broad based compliance that we can have true competitiveness and properly funded government. At the same time, we must do everything to ensure equity in tax compliance, not only by tax payers but also by the collectors, as well as do what is necessary to encourage employment and growth, especially in light of the health issues we face.

For this we will need all hands on deck.

Dennis Chung is a chartered accountant and the author of the books Charting Jamaica’s Economic and Social Development AND Achieving Life’s Equilibrium. His blog is dcjottings.blogspot.com. Email: drachung@gmail.com