Ministers of government must be suitably qualified

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

THE notion of performance-based evaluation of state employees is growing in popularity across the globe as a satisfactory way of holding them accountable for the service they offer.

Minister in the Government of Jamaica is one of the few jobs to which a person can be appointed without having any relevant training or experience. No wonder the sad state of governance.

In our editorial of April 15, 2009, we advocated the need for a job description for ministers of government and called for the appointment to ministerial responsibility to be restricted to persons appropriately qualified by training and experience.

We are pleased to see that others, including our media competitors, have followed our lead, albeit more than two years later, and are now calling for job descriptions for members of parliament and ministers of government.

We note too that Mr Brian Pengelley, president of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association, has extended that call to include all persons seeking election as members of parliament.

Rev Lenworth Anglin of the Church of God is also rightly stressing the qualifications of those who aspire to serve as members of parliament.

After all, this is the pool from which ministers will be selected. We suspect that the majority of persons who are candidates and that subset who will be elected to the House of Representatives will not necessarily be qualified to be ministers of government. The skills that get people elected to parliament are not necessarily those that will lend itself to skilful government. The dirth of talent thrown up by the electoral process can only be remedied to a limited extent by ministers selected from the Senate.

We also reiterate our recent calls for candidates to be subjected, like members of parliament, to the strictest standards of integrity. We again ask foreign governments and international organisations to make available information and take appropriate actions, such as visa withdrawals, to "weed" out those who should not be allowed to sit in the House and Senate.

We are extending an invitation to all citizens at home and abroad and to professional associations such as the Jamaica Bar Association to make public any incontrovertible factual evidence why any particular candidate is unsuitable or unworthy of the high office they offer themselves to serve in. All organs of governance including the police have a duty to blow the whistle on those disqualified by their misdeeds.

Ensuring the highest standards of integrity to the members of parliament and the members of the Cabinet is the first and most important step to improving governance in Jamaica and restoring and maintaining the integrity to every institution in Jamaica.

The second step to better governance in our country is to endeavour to get the most able persons as members of parliament, and only those properly qualified most be selected to serve in the Cabinet. Their training and experience must be matched as closely as possible with the ministerial post in which they are being asked to serve. The Cabinet must be selected on merit and qualification.

We must abandon notions that length of time in a political party or in parliament is a qualification, and the size of the Cabinet must not be to provide as many people with the salary and status of minister of government. The reward for being elected MP is to serve the constituency, not ministerial appointment.

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COMMENTS (9)

Wilfred Gray
12/14/2011

Most Jamaicans, assumingly, think we knows what the `job description of a `MP` should be: The lack of quality performance and adherence to high principled standard, is what more seems to be `missing` from sucessive governmets. Stop` folks`, these `MP`s know their job function, no matter how qualified, some just do not function; What we needs is `impeachment[Seaga] and democratic methods to recall non-performers! Also restricting `MP`s to have to reside inany Parish they running for MP in!

Tom Stroke
12/14/2011

I will agree with the point that ministers in the government should be appointed based on qualification and training, rather than on how long the person is serving in the party. In addition to some of the other points made in this editorial, I also believe 100% that proper job description for ministers should be in place. For when sell-out Peter Phillips signed those secret MOUs, the man assumed the roles of prime minister, ministers of foreign affairs, finance, telecommunication, security, justice and possibly attorney general. In other words, the man is the first and only COMBO minister I know. As a matter of fact, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and others are yet to come up with a combo to rival Peter Phillips. This should never happen again. We need to have clear and distinct guidelines that our minister should operate in.

David Armstrong
12/14/2011

Wow! what a great discovery that ministers of govt. must be suitably qualified. I have said before the media needs to be more proactive in finding out if people who are nominated for high political office are qualified. They can do this by engaging them in interviews to learn about their background and their position on the issues they will be dealing with. Simply providing sideline analysis is futile and does not benefit the country. Why not advocate a confirmation processs instead.

ghost rider
12/14/2011

What can we find in the JLP bag after 4 years? A stolen beach (made the Guinness Book), stolen chairs and carpets at the MBCC, Armadale girls (burnt to death); Dudus/Manatt Affair which cost the lives of 74 Jamcans, billions of dollars lost and loss of respect for JA in the Int’l community. Tell us who paid for Manatt and the P.M. high profile lawyers at the Manatt Enquiry; resignation of a P.M. before the end of his 1st term; JDIP (resignation/firing of a government minister), the pulling of a visa from a gov. minister (a 1st for Ja.), Lies about the Orion plane over Tivoli. You and your cartoonist can tell us how much the country lost over the Trafigura Affair, which Mrs. S-Miller said was a gift from a foreign govt. Your vines have tender grapes Mr. Editor, so you daren’t publish.

0o k
12/14/2011

MHRs already have a job description.
They are representatives of their constituents in Parliament.

Chuck Emanuel
12/14/2011

In addition, it is imperative that a verifiable and transparent due diligence process be implemented and made public. Public Service is a Public TRUST !

John Christian
12/14/2011

Agree...both Political parties must lift the standard for candidate selection...that will not gurantee good representation...but it will widen the pool for better quality representatives and by extension better ministerial material.

Stephen Fox
12/14/2011

Editor, your analysis truly represents the constraints of the constitution. In a republic the legislators would be prevented from serving in a ministerial (ie administrative) post. The minister should any be qualified citizen not an elected post. We cannot select who the citizens will chose to represent them. What we do need is an ability to impeach the MP and fire the Minister. I suggest that a switch to a constitutional republic is the basis for solving this problem that you pose.

Jay Brown
12/14/2011

I join the observer in this call see http://wp.me/pvIkx-83 for more details, its full time we do the right thing.

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Ministers of government must be suitably qualified