LEAVE THE KEYS ON YOUR WAY OUT AND DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU WHERE …

LEAVE THE KEYS ON YOUR WAY OUT AND DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU WHERE …

The new­ly elect­ed JLP Administration is not yet sworn in yet there are two devel­op­ments wor­thy of note from the Prime Minister des­ig­nate and the Labor Party which seem to sug­gest that the par­ty and it’s leader intend to lead by example.
(1) Prime Minister des­ig­nate Andrew Holness issued direc­tives that the tra­di­tion of sell­ing Government vehi­cles to out­go­ing Ministers would not be happening .
Simply put accord­ing to mis­ter Holness , leave the damn keys.
This is a sig­nif­i­cant indi­ca­tor which I hope the Prime Minister and his new Administration will stick to with strict fidelity.

Shockingly but not out of char­ac­ter for the People’s National Party, out­go­ing Justice Minister Mark Golding’s claimed that the Prime Minister elect is being hyp­o­crit­i­cal and vin­dic­tive in bar­ring the sale of motor vehi­cles to out­go­ing PNP min­is­ters that were being used dur­ing their tenure.
This goes direct­ly to the sense of enti­tle­ment that the lead­er­ship of the PNP and the loads of polit­i­cal hacks and hang­ers on have regard­ing the pub­lic charge over which that admin­is­tra­tion was giv­en stewardship.
Even if Mark Golding is pissed about this, should­n’t he show some class and keep his damn mouth shut?
Truthfully speak­ing there has been a tra­di­tion of sell­ing off these vehi­cles to the Ministers who pre­vi­ous­ly had them assigned to them . However it is the right of the new Administration to change that pol­i­cy par­tic­u­lar­ly when the par­ty cam­paigned on tighter fis­cal responsibility.
What is it with these peo­ple that they do not under­stand that nei­ther tax-pay­ers prop­er­ty nor Jamaica belong to them?
Read also : PM DESIGNATE AND CABINET SHOULD BE GUIDED BY HUMILITY…

In respond­ing to Mark Golding’s infan­tile com­ments Member of Parliament elect for west­ern Portland Daryl Vaz said “The break­ing of this ‘cus­tom­ary prac­tice’ that even for­mer mem­bers of the last JLP Administration ben­e­fit­ed from in the past, is a direct sign of change, and that the new Andrew Holness-led Administration will not sub­scribe to cher­ished prac­tices that are not in the best inter­est of the econ­o­my and the peo­ple of Jamaica,”.
ThatThe par­ty of Mark Golding and Portia Simpson Miller, stacked with mas­sive amounts of polit­i­cal hacks dis­guised as Consultants and Advisers would miss the sig­nif­i­cance of this sub­stan­tive­ly and opti­cal­ly is no surprise.
As I wrote in a pre­vi­ous arti­cle the new Administration must do a com­pre­hen­sive audit of all the min­istries start­ing with the Prime Minister’s office to see where the pub­lic’s mon­ey was being leaked away to par­ty loyalists.

PARTY SUPPORTERS WILL PAY PART OF COST OF SWEARING IN CEREMONY

(2) Prime Minister des­ig­nate Andrew Holness is sched­uled to be sworn in on Thursday in a cer­e­mo­ny at King’s house .
General Secretary for The Jamaica Labour Party, Dr Horace Chang, says a sig­nif­i­cant amount of the expense, relat­ing to its leader, Andrew Holness Being sworn-in as Prime Minister, is being fund­ed by its sup­port­ers. “The par­ty is of the view, that the coun­try is still in an eco­nom­ic cri­sis, and as such, mon­ey can­not be spent unnec­es­sar­i­ly”, said Chang..

This medi­um wish­es to acknowl­edge these two events which serves as indi­ca­tors that the new Administration rec­og­nizes the need for a new direc­tion in fis­cal pol­i­cy and account­abil­i­ty. Hopefully this is the begin­ning of what will be a trend in the way the new Administration han­dles it’s pub­lic trust as it relates to stew­ard­ship of the nation’s scarce resources.
Furthermore I hope this will become a new tem­plate of account­abil­i­ty for future Administrations, not just vol­un­tar­i­ly but that this new direc­tion will ush­er in new laws which brings strict account­abil­i­ty to the dis­pen­sa­tion of pub­lic funds.
If polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion and patron­age is to be min­i­mized and erad­i­cat­ed the loop-holes with­in the sys­tem must be plugged. This will remove slush funds from the hands of politi­cians. This is one of the ways the dis­man­tling of Garrisons will become a reality.

This medi­um will be keep­ing a hawk-eye to ensure that this will not be just a ruse until the new Administration set­tles into office after which it will con­tin­ue busi­ness as usu­al. Something tells me Andrew Holness intends to be different.
Time will tell.