The image of the Child Development Agency (CDA) and the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) that emerged from an extensive interview with journalist Mr Cliff Hughes on Nationwide @ Five on Tuesday afternoon is one of two agencies that are weak, prone to ineptness and saddled with bureaucracy.

Both agencies were thrust into the spotlight after a caller to Mr Hughes’ earlier talk show, Cliff Hughes’ Online, informed him that she had reported a case of sexual abuse of a six-year-old girl by an adult male relative to the OCR from about June last year, was given a tracking number, but had not seen any positive result from the complaint.

Mr Hughes, in carrying out his duty as a good journalist and responsible citizen, immediately contacted the OCR and started unearthing more information about the story.

Later that afternoon, in his news and current affairs programme, Mr Hughes continued drilling into the matter, questioning representatives of both agencies and others mandated to look after the interests of our children. One of the astonishing revelations from that discussion was that neither the CDA nor the OCR reported this case to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).

After all the excuses and explanations, including that attempts to find the child were unsuccessful, we awoke Wednesday morning to news that the child had thankfully been located and was taken into State care. Late Wednesday evening, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information told us that the child has started to receive counselling and has seen a doctor.

We are indeed relieved that this child has been taken out of the home where she has been subjected to such horror. We hope that she is receiving adequate care and protection because we have had reason in the past to be deeply disappointed in the ability of the Jamaican State to care for its most vulnerable citizens.

We also hope that the man who is accused of abusing this child is being sought and that if he is apprehended he will be prosecuted and face the full force of the law if convicted.

We wonder, though, why it had to take relentless probing from Mr Hughes and his team at Nationwide for this child to be found? Is it that the people entrusted with the job of protecting our children do not care enough to apply the same level of discipline and determination as Mr Hughes to get their jobs done?

If that is the case, why are they employed to these agencies which are funded by taxpayers?

Even if, as we suspect, these agencies are understaffed, they can offer no credible excuse for their cavalier approach to this case, because it took CISOCA only a few hours after the discussion on Nationwide @ Five to find the child.

Mr Floyd Green, the junior minister in the Ministry of Youth, has since informed the country that plans which were outlined last year to merge the OCR and the CDA will be fast-tracked, with a chairman of the merger team to be named by today.

That will hopefully help, but the merger shouldn’t be just about increasing the number of people to strengthen the operational and response capabilities of the new entity. It must include the establishment and implementation of accountability procedures, as well as performance assessment tied to tenure of service.