The Editor, Sir:

I am fully in agreement with your Sunday, November 1, editorial and add my perspective. The recent and sudden resignation of former BOJ Governor Derrick Latibeaudiere has brought into focus the merits of replacing key public officials whenever there is a change of government. One school of thought is that a new prime minister needs persons in key positions who he/she can trust and whose thinking and philosophy are on the same page as he is. Another and seemingly more popular view is that any such change is political victimisation. I believe the former is true.

Mr Latibeaudiere was a key player in Dr Omar Davies' debt-propelled strategy, which concentrated on demand containment. The new administration instead wants to focus on supply expansion. The former strategy requires higher interest rates, while the latter calls for lower rates. Either strategy can work if all aspects of Government's macroeconomic programme are aligned and the chosen strategy is flawlessly executed. However, whenever there is a fundamental misalignment, such as with Messrs Latibeaudiere and Shaw, national objectives will be very difficult to achieve.

Making key appointments

With his philosophy so much at variance with that of the finance minister, Mr Latibeaudiere should never have been reappointed in September 2007. Having trusted a new prime minister with the reigns of Government and the country's future, we must hold Mr Golding accountable for achievement of national objectives and should give him the requisite authority to make key appointments with strategy alignment implications, such as Cabinet ministers, boards and certain statutory heads. Excluded must be positions, such as the auditor general, the contractor general, director of public prosecutions and positions in the judiciary.

Lost view

This view was totally lost on Daisy Coke and her former colleagues of the Public Service Commission who tried to force Stephen Vasciannie on Mr Golding. Mr Vasciannie's competence is not the issue here, rather, it is the synergy with the prime minister that is important. The challenge is that we treat these positions as benefits and not challenges.

A few years ago, both political parties agreed to give the previous and any future BOJ governor a seven-year contract to insulate the position from political interference. We have paid the price over the last two years and the PM must now move swiftly to change that.

We must give our leaders levels of authority commensurate with responsibility and then hold them accountable.

I am, etc.,

ROBERT C. WYNTER

robwyn@cwjamaica.com