Dr Nigel Clarke, former minister of finance, has now moved on to his coveted appointment as one of the deputy managing directors of the International Monetary Fund. As we have previously noted in this space, we wish him well in his new appointment and anticipate the sterling contributions he will make to this international financial institution.

All eyes are now turned to his replacement, Fayval Williams, Member of Parliament for St Andrew Eastern and outgoing minister of education. Many are agreed that she is perhaps better suited to this appointment as minister of finance and believe that she will do a good job in the portfolio.

She has already won the acceptance and tacit endorsement of the business community. To my knowledge there has not been a dissenting voice to her appointment publicly, and this augurs well for her and is a good platform on which she can begin to do her work.

She comes to the post well credentialed, both in terms of academic achievements and work experience in the international and local finance industry. Before being appointed minister of education she served as minister of state in the Ministry of Finance and is, therefore, no stranger to that ministry.

Williams will understand that there will be no honeymoon period in her appointment. She will have to hit the road running, as there are a number of unfinished businesses to be tackled. The most important of these is crafting the next budget for presentation in March.

If we know Clarke well enough, we can be assured that a great deal of work has already been done in this regard. There may not be many things to change, but this will be her budget and that of the Government. The strength of her own imprimatur is to be determined and will be revealed in March.

On a more long-term basis, and perhaps aligned to the above-mentioned, is charting and setting the course for growth in the economy. Significant work has been done by the Andrew Holness Administration in strengthening the macroeconomic integrity of the economy. But now the heavy lifting of getting meaningful and sustained growth in the economy has to be the concentrated focus of the Government and especially the minister of finance. This is the real bugbear with which the country will have to contend.

Given the macroeconomic achievements and fiscal strength of the economy, we are beginning to see for the first in a long time the possibilities for real growth. But there are serious impediments that need to be addressed. Foremost among these is the robust training of the workforce to get the necessary skills that a growing economy requires in the technological and digital environment in which we live.

In this regard, the prime minister’s recent visit to India should have involved engagement with the Indian Government in the training of young minds. One does not know if this critical matter was addressed, and I stand to be advised if this was done. If it was not, it would have been a missed opportunity. India is one of the leading countries in technological training of the young and we should do everything we can to leverage this budding relationship.

There are also the bureaucratic impediments that hinder productivity and growth in the economy. This has been a long-standing problem that successive governments have not been able to overcome. As I have noted repeatedly in this space, we do not have a well-trained and robust civil service to undertake the kind of transformation that a growing economy demands. We tinker at the edges instead of confronting the problem head-on.

There is still too much political caution when demanding that the people of Jamaica be given the respect they deserve in terms of the service that is rendered to them by public bodies. Perhaps a performance audit needs to be conducted on the work of the permanent secretaries in each ministry to ascertain whether they are rendering the best service possible.

But who will bell this cat? You can hear the loud screams of political interference with the civil service by the political directorate from sections of the society whose vision is too myopic to see the urgency of what needs to be addressed. Yet there are too many “irritables” that frustrate Jamaicans in their encounter with the public service, not least of which is the lack of attention to the routine maintenance of air conditioning units in hospitals that prevent surgery or the dilapidated state of toilets in our court houses. Ministers of Government cannot see every problem in their ministries, but the permanent secretaries should be brought to account for these egregious lapses. If we cannot attend to these small things, then how can we remedy the large ones?

So we have a problem as far as real growth in the economy is concerned. The minister of finance will have her work cut out for her as she seeks to build consensus and motivate people to get involved as critical stakeholders in order to achieve the change that is required.

This column wishes her well as she embarks on this journey.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on YouTube. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Given the macroeconomic achievements and fiscal strength of the economy, we are beginning to see for the first in a long time the possibilities for real growth.

Raulston Nembhard