GOVERNMENT

Senator Sherene

Golding Campbell

opened the Senate’s State

of the Nation Debate last

Friday by declaring that

Jamaica can no longer afford

to be satisfied with economic

stability, arguing that the

country must now urgently

turn that foundation into

greater productivity and

stronger public services that

are felt by ordinary Jamaicans.

Golding Campbell said

the next phase of Jamaica’s

development must focus on

converting the gains made in

achieving macroeconomic and

fiscal stability into tangible

improvements in income, opportunities, living standards,

and wealth, while confronting systems that she said

have contributed to low productivity, weak accountability

o build on the foundation that

has been laid to turn stability

into opportunity, resilience

into growth, and economic

progress into a better quality

of life for every Jamaican. And

there’s always a challenge,

when one is behind the eight

ball. And though we have made

progress, we could have done

so much more in these last 64

years…It means that every

single one of us must approach

the development of Jamaica

with the urgency of borrowed

time, as if it is a task we each

need to finish before we die,”

she said.

But she warned that achieving that transformation would

require Jamaica to tackle

long-standing weaknesses in

the public service, particularly the way in which government services are delivered

and holding public officers

accountable.

“There can be no transformation of this nation into the

robust and growing economy

and productive society that

it can be without significant

reforms of the public service

system in relation to the kinds

of services we deliver to our

people, how we deliver them,

and the systems of accountability and rules that govern

those who must deliver those

services from the lowest levels

to the highest levels,” she said.

The senator called for a

stronger culture of personal

responsibility among public

officers, while stressing that

she is not suggesting that

every public servant performs

poorly. Her concern, she said,

is with what she described as

a systemic problem in the way

citizens are served.

She pointed to delays in responding to telephone calls,

correspondence, and applications as examples of the

difficulties Jamaicans can encounter when dealing with the

Government.

She proposed, among other

measures, the establishment of

local “knowledge centres” that

would allow citizens to obtain

information about government

services and programmes from

a single, accessible location

instead of having to visit

several agencies to determine

what documents or steps are

required.

She said the centres could

take different forms, including

physical locations, technology-supported kiosks or online

portals.

“The Jamaican citizen

should not have to navigate

the machinery of government.

Government should navigate

itself on behalf of the citizen,”

Golding Campbell said.

She also called for greater

devolution of decision-making authority within the public

service, arguing that routine

decisions should not have to

move through multiple layers

of approval.

However, she said greater

authority must be accompanied by clear standards and

consequences.

Golding Campbell also linked

public sector pay to performance, arguing that the significant salary adjustments

made for public officers in 2022

should have been accompanied

by stronger systems for measuring performance.

“Improved salaries must walk

hand in hand with performance

standards. Discussions about

improved salaries must be accompanied by talks about performance metrics and how we

measure whether the people of

Jamaica are getting value for

money,” she said.

She further called for faster

digitisation and greater integration across government, including standardised ministry

websites, more accessible application processes and improved

publication of public data.

The senator argued that

citizens and businesses should

be able to track applications

and obtain information about

their status, particularly in areas

such as building approvals, land

titles, work permits, criminal

record expungement, and the

administration of estates.

She also called for common

databases between ministries

and agencies so that information already supplied to

one government entity can be

accessed by another, where

necessary, to provide a public

service.

“A farmer cannot begin to

approach financial institutions

to fund any investment in his

farming business if his land

titling process is delayed. A

family awaiting the administration of their deceased loved

one’s estate, in order to sell

property to finance their family

business or send children to

university, is in limbo until the

process is completed,” she said.

She argued that the

Government should conduct

audits of its systems and

business processes to identify

unnecessary steps, duplication

and excessive layers of approval.

That argument formed

the basis of one of Golding

Campbell’s strongest calls for

reform — a significant overhaul

of Jamaica’s public procurement

framework.

She argued that procurement

should not be focused primarily

on procedural compliance at the

expense of efficiency, value for

money, and timely delivery.

“It appears that we managed

to convince ourselves that we

needed to create a procurement system that was not fit

for purpose, not to ensure efficient, fair, and transparent

procurement, but to operate

as some sort of pseudo-law

enforcement system guarding

against anyone who would dare

fall out of compliance with or

defy the burdensome rules and

processes we created to ensure

that government can really only

procure goods and services at

high cost with built-in inefficiencies and discretionary powers

to procuring entities to further

increase delay and cost,” she

said.

Golding Campbell identified several problems faced by

businesses seeking government

contracts, including what she

described as the absence of a

consolidated, up-to-date version

of the Procurement Act, incorporating amendments made

since the legislation was enacted

in 2015.

She also argued that the procurement system is too rigid and

could result in tenders being

cancelled and restarted, increasing costs for both government

and businesses.

Golding Campbell proposed

a less onerous procurement

process, accompanied by severe

penalties for those who deliberately breach the rules, arguing

that the threat of serious consequences could encourage

compliance without subjecting

every procurement exercise to

excessive procedural burdens.