Given recent events, it is rather dicey that the Government's November deadline will be met for completing technical negotiations and having an application for a US$1.2-billion loan go before IMF directors.

Indeed, it was difficult enough for the Government to push back against pressures for it to be more aggressive in slashing expenditure, so as to rein in a fiscal deficit running at over eight per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). But matters have grown more complicated with the sudden termination of central bank Governor Derick Latibeaudiere's contract on the weekend and the downgrading of Jamaican sovereign bonds, to CCC, by the ratings agency, Standard and Poor's. Latibeaudiere was leading the country's talks with the IMF.

As Prime Minister Golding and Finance Minister Shaw wrestle with these matters, they, at the same time, must confront another pressing and potentially disruptive matter. Nurses have been flexing their industrial muscle, attempting to press the administration to implement a job reclassification report, whose cost, the finance ministry estimates, will be $5.7 billion.

Strong leadership

The Government's response has been somewhere between that the reclassification is unaffordable and that it wants to complete a job evaluation of the entire health sector first, rather than having a piecemeal exercise, starting with nurses. The IMF negotiations and the restiveness among nurses are related, and on both the administration appears to lack a coherent strategy. Yet the circumstances demand strong leadership, a willingness on the part of the administration to take tough decisions and an ability to articulate its actions with a clarity that ensures buy-in from the Jamaican public.

After debt servicing, the public sector wage bill is the Government's biggest cost. Even after the freeze so messily imposed by the Government this year, that bill is projected at $125.7 billion, or 12.7 per cent higher than in 2008/2009. Public sector wages account for nearly 23 per cent of the Government's budget and around 12 per cent of GDP, as against nine per cent suggested by the IMF.

There were signals in the PM's recent fore-dawn speech to Parliament that he was beginning to understand these things, with his promise of a restructuring of the public sector that has grown bloated and inefficient. Job cuts, Mr Golding conceded, may have to take place. He promised that implementation of the exercise would begin by the start of the new fiscal year in April.

Who should get the job?

Unfortunately, we do not have a sense the necessary preparatory work is proceeding with the required urgency. Nor do we get the impression that someone has been specifically empowered to drive the process, which we initially assumed would have been among the responsibilities of the PM's recently appointed special adviser, Mr Christopher Zacca. That, apparently, is not the case. We believe, therefore, that somebody should be specifically assigned the job, with the prime minister's imprimatur to get it done and be held accountable for his/her performance.

That person's mandate must include negotiating the extension of the wage freeze to three years, but not as quid pro quo for the necessary restructuring of the public sector. This is not an easy task. Nor is it frivolous. It is part of the process to drag us out of this crisis.

That is why the job must start now, with robust engagement, a lot of truth-telling, and firm ideas about how the country will distribute the sacrifice.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.