Prime Minister Bruce Golding's observation during the Budget Debate about the Government's rental of office space and his plan to do something about it seems to have escaped public attention.

At least, the commentators have made very little or nothing of it. That, perhaps, is because of the relatively small sums involved, especially when considered in the context of the country's economic situation, including a fiscal deficit of nearly seven per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), or over $75 billion, for the economic year recently ended.

So, the $217 million spent on renting 403 square feet of space in New Kingston to house government office, could well seem to be small beer. But as Prime Minister Golding noted, every penny counts and the one that is saved goes straight to the bottom line.

But for us, there is an equally important, and probably even larger point to Mr Golding's observation, and what he intends to do about it. For, should the prime minister follow through with concrete action, it may help to liberate a pent-up segment of the economy, which will help to drive GDP, thereby contributing to Jamaica lifting itself out of its crisis.

Helter-skelter dash

As we have long lamented in these columns, the Government was spending all that money on rent while it has acres of empty space - 269,000 square feet the prime minister says - in buildings it owns across the city. Our estimate is that over half of that space is downtown Kingston, from where the Government agencies over the last two and a half decades have joined the private sector in a helter-skelter dash uptown. Often, they outbid private firms for expensive New Kingston real estate, proffering spurious arguments about utilising their 'own' money as though it is not the resources of taxpayers, to whom they should be accountable.

The abandonment of downtown Kingston has left what should be prime waterfront real estate to grow hard and gritty and to the devices of the criminals, from whom these government agencies, paradoxically, claim to be in retreat. In essence, the State, wittingly almost, exacerbates a problem which it declares itself committed to fixing. Indeed, as government offices headed uptown, the State offered private people substantial tax incentives to stay put.

Government-owned buildings

Mr Golding has promised to put some of the agencies that are now in rented offices back into government-owned buildings. We applaud the intent.

However, as we have urged before, he should start with downtown Kingston - and as a matter of urgency. He need not wait for the grand idea of creating a diplomatic row on the waterfront or the promised financial services enclave. As it is, downtown, even with the grit and after-dark fear, remains a vibrant marketplace full of entrepreneurial vigour.

With the Government in the lead, demonstrating to 'corporates' that downtown is a place worth being, the old city's inherent vibrancy can be enhanced. The upshot: liberating the city from the stranglehold of a largely opaque economy, to one that is formal, structured and explosive in its growth. It is called leading by example.

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