To a man who has $1 billion in a bank account, $8 million may not seem like much. So will it not to a person who has amassed a fortune and can literally buy whatever he or she wants. But to a poor person who can never dream of having $8 million in his lifetime, this amount is a heck of a lot of money, which he may find it difficult to even wrap his mind around.

This kind of money is also no trump change given the poor and desperate straits in which many Jamaicans find themselves and who do not know from day to day where the next meal is coming from.

In a country that has struggled under severe financial constraints since its Independence one can well understand the outrage that would meet an $8-million phone bill racked up by a government official in one year. One can well understand also the condemnation that would descend on Member of Parliament Audley Shaw. Not only is he a government minister, but as minister of finance he ought to be the protector of the people’s purse, and people have a right to expect utmost probity and due care in his handling of his fiduciary duty to them.

The minister claims that most of the bill has to do with data roaming charges on his government-issued cellphone. He has told the nation that the matter of the high bills was brought to his attention late in the day, and when he learned of it he moved speedily to have the matter addressed, paying back a portion that he deemed he was personally responsible for and getting the telecommunications carrier to discount a portion of the bill. All this may be admirable, but it does not remove the fact that it happened and has to be addressed.

And if it is going to be thus addressed it must be ascertained who was responsible for bringing the bill to the attention of the minister in the first place and why was this not done in a timely manner? The nation has a right to know for one can be certain that if an Access to Information Act request with regard to the bills was not made by one of our leading news outfits the bill would continue to pile up into the stratosphere.

Was the person responsible to inform the minister just a careless person or was he or she too timid to approach him with this kind of news? I ask the question for the deference in which Jamaican ministers are often held can cause lesser mortals to cringe, especially when they have to bring reports that are negative to their attention. And this is not as far-fetched as it may appear.

Let us be clear that Shaw’s phone bill deserves all the condemnation that can be heaped upon his head. It speaks to a chain of accountability in his ministry that either does not exist or has broken down and is impatient of being fixed. In all of this there is clear negligence and a kind of nonchalant attitude to how business is done on behalf of the beleaguered taxpayer. This attitude is emblematic of what takes place in government; the waste, mismanagement and corruption that have become endemic in the way government business is attended to.

If the minister, or any other minister for that matter, had personal responsibility for the bills you can rest assured that they would not have reached over $8 million in one year. There would have been insistence on careful scrutiny of every call and roaming charge. Why is this attitude not brought to the matter of governance?

Part of the answer lies in the psychology that it is easier to spend other people’s money other than your own.

Also, ministers and other high government officials are often driven by a sense of entitlement, in which they feel that the resources of the State are at their disposal to do with as they will. This is why there is no haste to strengthen the accountability framework that can cauterise the rampant corruption throughout government. It also explains why resources are not robustly given to the agencies that have responsibility to scrutinise government behaviour and bring people to book.

Again, neither political party that has governed Jamaica since Independence comes to these matters with clean hands and pure hearts. It rings hollow and disingenuous when the People’s National Party, now in Opposition, begins to sound like Mother Teresa in their denunciation of Audley Shaw. Undoubtedly, Shaw gave them a low-hanging, ripe mango and as Opposition one can expect them to bite into it voraciously like a man who has not eaten for 40 days and 40 nights. For them it is outrage beyond outrage.

But people should not be fooled that if and when they get their turn at the wicket things will amazingly change for the better. While demanding accountability people must see the politics for what it is and not become blinded by political colours.

Have you ever noticed how scarce the resources of government are to an Opposition party and how abundant these resources become when that party becomes the Government of the day? Suddenly the old furniture cannot work as offices need to be redecorated. Money has to be found to buy new air-conditioned SUVs which are sometimes left to idle when the minister is not sitting in them. Bodyguards, chauffeurs, free lodging, free travel, and per diem expenses are just a few of the accoutrements of privilege that are guaranteed the politician who ascends to the prized position of minister. A Jamaican minister of government enjoys a level of privilege and comfort of which many Jamaicans can only dream. Some suffer the ‘King Kong Syndrome’, which makes them think that people must pay them deference as they have now assumed a larger-than-life image. Those who are smitten by this syndrome do not see themselves as servants of the people, but their masters.

It is not only the cellphone use of ministers that must be audited and brought under control. The general waste in government, often highlighted by the auditor general, must be addressed. The rental of plush and expensive office spaces to house government functionaries must give way to more serious endeavours to use available space already owned by government. Those who govern must tailor their pockets to fit the needs of the poor taxpayer and not that of the already rich and well heeled.

In case you did not notice, we are still a poor country living under the dictates of an international agency (the International Monetary Fund) with whom we have the dubious distinction of having the longest borrowing relationship. One does not have to act poor, but trying to live rich when you are poor is insanity.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to the Observer or stead6655@aol.com.