Review public policy

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Dear Editor,

The clamour of most Jamaicans is for good governance. After all, we have seen the effect of poor governance and the challenges we face: poor physical infrastructure, inadequate social services, a lack of ethics among too many public servants and a stagnating economy in a challenging global environment. Experts say we are 40 years behind our sister island Barbados, relative to socioeconomic development.

Governance, says the UNDP, is a three-legged stool: economic governance includes decisionmaking processes that affect a country's economic activities as well as its relationships to other economies and obviously impacts equity, poverty and quality of life. Political governance is the process of decision-making to formulate policy, and administrative governance is the system of policy implementation.

Historically, Jamaica has been weak in all three areas. While much attention is focused on economics, equal emphasis must be placed on policymaking and enforcement, particularly since this would positively impact the economy. The reverse, meanwhile, is not necessarily true.

Policies designed to control crime, improve public safety and the delivery of justice; curb waste, inefficiency and corruption, and enhance essential services like health care, would reduce costs and attract more foreign investment. Imagine that without the spectre of crime and grime, Kingston, for example, could become a major attraction for international businesses, leisure tourists and culture/heritage buffs.

Policy development is obviously an ongoing process but we are so far behind, whether from the perspective of non-existence, nonsense, or inadequate accountability, that I believe special measures must now be taken.

Beyond the parties, therefore, Jamaica's 50th anniversary should be an opportunity to undertake a comprehensive review of our public policy portfolio. During a “National Policy Review Month”, all government agencies should be mandated to examine existing policies under their purview. Good policies should be kept, weak ones revised and bad ones thrown out. By extension, where there is glaring need for policy directions, the process of crafting and implementing should begin immediately.

At the end, each agency should have a comprehensive report of what has been found, what new recommendations have emerged, a time frame to implement change and a proposal on how to tell the public about them.

Can we agree, for example, that all government offices should be furnished with local material? Such a policy should cut cost, promote Brand Jamaica and support local manufacturing.

Can we agree that all vehicles seized by government agents should be sold at public auction and not given to the very agency responsible for the seizure? This would eliminate the sleaze factor from how some agencies conduct business, make money for the public purse and promote transparency and accountability.

Can we have some serious policy analysis of police procedures?

Can we have equally serious analysis of how medical professionals deliver care and what goes on in public health-care facilities? And, in this our 50th year, can we have a Patient's Bill of Rights?

As a nation we must establish goals on how best to use limited resources to improve the quality of life of our citizens and prevent vulgar excesses and wanton disregard for the taxpayers’ dollar, and by extension, the public good. We must also express in concrete terms how these goals will be operationalised – that is, how to move them from concepts to actions. Good policies are the road map to achieving such an end.

Moreover, good policies take personalities and politics out of decisions and actions that will affect our lives, regardless of who occupies Jamaica House.

In large part, this is what it means to be a developed country.

Grace Virtue, PhD

Washington, DC, USA

Gvirtue@usa.net

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Review public policy