Golding

The Government's plan to send home scores of public sector workers will roll out next April.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding on Wednesday gave confirmation that the existing public sector structure will remain intact until the next Budget is to be presented at the start of the 2010-2011 financial year.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Golding asserted his commitment to roll out a new public sector.

"We have ended up with a burgeoning public sector bureaucracy because we never fix what is wrong. We tend to co-opt with good intention but often end up in a follicle of inefficiency to establish new capacity without utilising the existing capacity that we have," Golding declared.

"It is one of the considerations that are informing the work that we are doing now, looking at the restructuring of the public sector, which is something that I committed to roll out as of April of next year," the prime minister added.

An air of uncertainty has been hovering over the public sector since last week's sitting of Parliament.

During a debate of the First Supplementary Estimates, the prime minister said the slashing of his Cabinet would form part of the restructuring of the public sector.

Golding is to lead the team, which will operate out of the Office of the Prime Minister, to implement the staff cuts.

Golding was speaking within the context of concerns he harboured when the JSIF was established in 1996. At the time, Golding said he thought it likely to duplicate the work of other government agencies.

However, 13 years later, Golding conceded that he has to be singing a different tune in harmony with the JSIF under the leadership of managing director, Scarlette Gillings, and chairman, Dr Wesley Hughes.

It was revealed that during the 2008/2009 financial year, despite the severe economic crunch gripping the globe, the operational performance of the fund increased, as 190 projects were approved, compared with 77 during the 2007/2008 financial year.

"This represents an increase of 41 per cent and an approved monetary investment of over $1.7 billion," Hughes disclosed.

He said the fund succeeded in completing 85 infrastructure and social services projects, resulting in more than 83,000 persons benefiting.

The prime minister showered accolades on the accomplishments of the JSIF, but challenged the entity to ensure that its treatment of communities which were in need of assistance was sustainable and far-reaching.

Golding said he was willing to sit with the team and flesh out strategies to ensure that communities and individuals could be enriched and empowered while being assisted by the tangible efforts of the JSIF.

The prime minister also disclosed that Finance Minister Audley Shaw had signed off on a $4-billion foreign direct investment which will impact the tourism sector, and urged JSIF to determine how this could boost the efforts of the local craft industry.

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com