The recently proposed Stand-by Agreement between the Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a step in the right direction. It signifies that the Government has done well under the Extended Fund Facility, which was started by the previous Government and continued by the Andrew Holness Administration. The baton was well received and carried. Now that a new arrangement — with less strictures than the first — has been agreed to, the Government and people of Jamaica must move expeditiously to take advantage of the shift that has taken place from Jamaica being an international pariah to an emerging star in the world economy.

The clearly laid out benchmarks for economic growth are not outside of our ability to achieve as a people. The past four years have demonstrated what can be achieved when a Government and people bend their wills to achieve significant progress. And there should be no doubt that the people have borne tremendous hardships, especially in the first three years of the IMF programme. They continue to bear sacrifices as the dollar devalues, placing great strain on their personal and business spending power.

One cannot help stressing the importance of Government working hand in hand with the people in achieving economic growth. Growth cannot be achieved by government fiat or dictum, nor by any particular group who may think they know all the answers. The people must be informed in a timely manner of government initiatives for growth.

Government and its operatives must take them into their confidence and make them really feel that they are important stakeholders in what is being proposed. Everybody cannot have a seat at the table, but there should not be a seat that does not take into account full regard and respect for the people whose business is being discussed.

The work of the Economic Growth Council, under Michael Lee-Chin’s leadership, is set to play an important role in the country’s growth agenda in the new Stand-by Agreement. So far, the council has demonstrated a grasp for what ails the economy and what can be done to gradually heal the patient. We all know that the crime monster has to be tamed, for this is one of the most stubborn and insidious impediments to growth. Significant resources have to be rolled out to make this happen, but it should not be just a matter of throwing money at the problem.

I hope that this is not the thinking of Richard Byles, the co-chair of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, when he suggested that money saved can be directed to fighting crime. Although we should never make the simple the victim of the complex, what ails the Jamaica Constabulary Force is not merely a matter of the lack of financial resources. For the longest while the force has been in a chronic state in which many of the men and women in uniform are demoralised, underappreciated, overworked, and would perhaps call it quits tomorrow if they had a better way to earn a living.

There are distinct sets of problems which they themselves foment, such as corruption and, in too many instances, downright criminality, but the large percentage of the members of the force want to do well by Jamaica. They are the ones who must be given support in continued training, in rehabilitating dilapidated facilities that pass for police stations and residences, and in equipping the force with vehicles that can enhance their mobility. Intelligence-gathering mechanisms must be beefed up. This is where I believe the Federal Bureau of Investigations having an office in Jamaica can be of inestimable benefit.

But taming or cauterising crime is just one of the impediments to the growth agenda. Of equal consideration must be our lumbering bureaucracy that makes doing business in Jamaica a nightmare. William Mahfood, the former president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, was right that it is not all about calling Minister Daryl Vaz. Whether he made the statement tongue-in-cheek or not, he was calling attention to the frustration that Jamaicans have to deal with in contending with Jamaican Government bureaucracy.

The calls to Daryl are symptoms of the frustration which people experience in trying to get through the bureaucratic maze called the Jamaica Civil Service. And workers in some departments are not too civil in the way they treat with the public. Courtesy is not what you often get. Instead, there is the surly face and the nonchalance that greet you from people who obviously have got tired of the jobs they do. They seem to forget that, as civil servants, they work for the people of Jamaica, and that the people are their customers and employers at the same time. They should treat them with the full respect they deserve.

Discourtesy and the bad treatment meted out to people are certainly not the preserve of the public sector. You encounter it also in the private sector, but it is surely more pronounced and abundant in the public sector. People behave as if they are doing you a favour. The full reform of the public sector cannot come any time sooner.

One is not for people losing their jobs, but if we are serious about growth we cannot have a lumbering bureaucracy — as presently obtains. It must be trimmed, made leaner, and more efficient. Efficiency will not come by mere attrition. The process must be well thought through and decisions reached implemented.

But no political party wants to bell the cat, for no one wants to be accused of laying off people from their jobs. But the present Government will have no choice but to complete the full rationalisation of the public sector and the chips will have to fall where they may. As presently constituted, our government bureaucracy is one of the greatest impediments to economic growth. This can has reached a fork in the road, where kicking it any farther can only mean the height of irresponsibility.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to the Observer orstead6655@aol.com.