Editorial: Mr Dalley Should Do As He Says
Jamaica gleaner.
Our reference is to the warning by Horace Dalley, the Government’s wage negotiator, that there would have to be a cut of up to 15,000 public-sector jobs if the Government were to acquiesce to the wage demands of state employees, some of whom, like the police, have asked for as much as 200 per cent. Most, however, are more modest at around 30 per cent, over two years. The Government’s offer is a five per cent hike on basic pay.
Mr Dalley and his boss, Finance Minister Peter Phillips, have correctly placed the matter of the wage negotiations in the context of the economic reform project being undertaken by the Government, with tutelage from the International Monetary Fund. The programme’s primary aim is to bring the fiscal accounts into balance and to place the country’s unsustainable debt on a downward trajectory. An important benchmark of the programme is for the Government to run a fiscal surplus of 7.5 per of gross domestic product (GDP).
ANAEMIC GROWTH
The reforms, of course, make sense. For as the sensible often point out, Jamaica’s ineptitude at managing its finances contributed to its high levels of borrowing, leading to a ballooning debt that was heading towards 150 per cent of GDP. The Government’s gourmandising on debt left little room for private investment in the real economy. The result: anaemic growth.
Adjustments, such as those being undertaken, are neither easy nor painless, to which Jamaicans will readily attest. But the more egregious wrong, over the longer term, would be for the Government to retreat from the project and to raise public-sector salaries without doing more.
INEFFICIENT, BLOATED CIVIL SERVICE.
First, we believe that government workers ought to be paid substantially more, but in the context of an efficient, productive entrepreneurial public sector that functions as a partner with, and facilitator of, the private sector. We do not, however, believe that this can be achieved — that is, better paid, efficient public bureaucracy — with the bloated civil service whose productivity continues to decline at a rate faster than most other categories of Jamaican workers.
Yet, as a group, relative to their performance, public-sector workers cannot claim to have done all that badly. In the past decade, since the 2004-05 fiscal year, the Government’s wage bill, minus pension payments, despite two rounds of wage freezes, has risen by 157 per cent, not far (around 10 percentage points) behind the movement in the consumer price index.
Indeed, even at only the projected five per cent increase, the public-sector wage bill would, this fiscal year, consume 36 per cent of the government revenue and 26 per cent of all its projected spend. When interest cost is added to the wage bill, that eats up 65 per cent of the revenue, leaving not much to do little.
We agree with Audley Shaw, the shadow finance minister. Public sector should be paid more. But that can’t happen with their bulging numbers. Genuine public-sector reform is urgent, including taking the scalpel to the sector and, with surgical precision, excising the bloat, unnecessary and the wasteful. This, clearly, is not a politically easy task. It is the right one.
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REALLY ?
How can a Socialist Government take a Scalpel to the bloated public sector when it’s entire philosophy is one of Government doing for people what they should do for themselves.
The present Administration does not understand how a market economy works, as such it becomes impossible for the country to claw it’s way out of the present crisis it’ faces.
Anyone who believes the present path dictated by the IMF is a path to rebuilding the Nation’s economy is delusional.
The path laid out by the fund is designed to ensure the country is able to pay back to the fund what it owes with interest.
Of course if the people were wide-eyed they would realize this is an unsustainable path to nowhere.
Wherever the IMF is happy social disorder becomes the natural order.
I wish the Editor would explain how this path will lead to prosperity, or even a serious reduction of the nations debt.
HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS TO THE SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT OPERATING IN KINGSTON AND THE ADMINISTRATIONS OPERATIVES AT THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE GLEANER COMPANY.
(1) REDUCE CRIME
You accomplish this by telling your supporters that there are no safe havens any place, in any Garrison controlled by your party.
Then dismantle the Garrisons.
No PM Miller, Garrisons do not have to have walls.
Equip, train, and pay the police.
Cut the bloated public sector workforce.
Yes that includes political hacks who are a drain on the country’s meager resources, . Yes family members and friends are included.
Pass laws commensurate with the rapidly changing times . Penalties should put serious offenders behind bars for long periods of time . Seek to rehabilitate non-violent offenders.
(2) ELIMINATE BUREAUCRACY.
Cut unnecessary restrictions on imports, thereby removing the protection accorded certain sectors of the private sector.
A private sector should be openly competitive. Those who cannot compete will be weeded out.
An open competitive private sector drives down prices to consumers.
(3) ELIMINATE CORRUPTION.
Remove family friends and loyalists from the public sector payroll. Slash non-essential workers , organize to get them loans so they may go to school or do start up businesses.
(4) LOWER TAXES.
Self explanatory.
(5) BROADEN TAX NET.
Bring more small operators into compliance this will relieve the burden on PAYE workers.
(6) DIVERSIFY ENERGY SOURCES.
Jamaica has no shortage of sun and wind. Have Industry and Commerce get off their fat rear-ends and go seek investors who are interested in helping to develop our Solar and wind capabilities. There is no reason Jamaica should be addicted to dirty oil.
(7) MAINTAIN AND BUILD THE NATION’S VITAL INFRASTRUCTURE.
Developing roads , water and electricity , reduces urban sprawl, encourages rural development and builds the economy.
Adopt these simple steps and watch Private sector investment flood our country. Do these and guaranteed we have to turn some investors away.
There is no reason Jamaicans should be living in a poverty-stricken crime infested hell-hole.
That is how a nation is built , not on pseudo/socialist give-aways.