Beverley Anderson -Manley
YEAR AFTER year we have grown accustomed to hearing about waste of public funds and cost overruns as these are outlined in the Auditor General's report and the Contractor General's report, among others.
In addition, these issues are discussed in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament headed by an often angry and puzzled Opposition Spokes-man on Finance, Audley Shaw.
This, as he seeks to get facts from the officers of the particular public sector entity who are accountable to the taxpayers of Jamaica.
Accountability should be before and not after the fact. Also, accountability is worth nothing if there are no sanctions. Hence, it is not surprising that we keep on getting the same results, year after year, after year, after year. No one takes responsibility.
The Permanent Secretary is the chief accounting officer in each ministry. In addition, heads of departments and chief executive officers are directly accountable to the Permanent Secretary who is accountable to the Financial Secretary who operates out of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. So we know who the accountable officers are.
Once again, it's the 'silly season' and the time of year for the Contractor General's report. In keeping with this, the Eighteenth Annual Report was tabled in Parliament recently.
THE CONTRACTOR GENERAL
The report chides the relevant officers within the ministries for the awarding of contracts and notes a number of inefficiencies in these areas that have a direct impact on the progress of the works.
"In some instances work has had to be suspended. In other instances, the contractors have performed poorly as they were unable to commit adequate resources to efficiently execute the project."
It is amazing, for example, that the Contractor General is forced to advise that "before awarding a contract, procuring entities must ensure that the contractor's resources are sufficient to meet the demands of those contracts already in hand plus those of the new contract."
He also points to "ineffective management of the project by both client agencies and contractors. This breakdown in project management, and site supervision, must be addressed as it leads to the delivery of inferior quality workmanship."
EXASPERATION
The Contractor General is not talking to basic school children. It is surprising that those who we pay to serve should have to be spoken to in this way and 'reprimanded' by a mere slap on the wrist, after the fact.
While satisfied with the recommendation and endorsement of contracts above the $4 million threshold, the Contractor General also complains about the failure of his "efforts to ascertain the total number of contracts as well as the value of each contract between $250,000 and $3,999.000." ... "To date there has been negligible response from the entities from whom we have requested this information". The Contractor General is powerless to do anything about this.
Yet another area of concern is "the suitability of contractors and consultants/project managers."
Here the Contractor General is recommending that "choice be based on an objective assessment of their experience and capabilities."
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that 39 per cent of contracts sampled were completed and a whopping 67 per cent experienced significant time overruns.
As Jamaicans, we need to wake up and take an interest in how ruling gets done in our country. Who benefits when there are massive cost overruns? Who benefits when we ignore these reports? Who benefits when we deal with accountability after the horse has gone through the gate?
Do we have the courage to put in place mechanisms to reward where necessary and sanction when appropriate?
This is of critical importance in a country like Jamaica where 66 cents in every dollar has to go towards the payment of debt and where we have an ongoing fiscal crisis. Every dollar must be accounted for. We have to cut out the waste.
Any country that is efficient and effective has mechanisms within the public sector to ensure that officers take responsibility for their actions and are accountable to their taxpayers who hire them to serve.
Taxpayers, like effective housewives, must begin to pay close attention to how their money is spent.
Wake up, Jamaica!
Beverley Manley is a political scientist, broadcaster and gender specialist. Email: bmanley@kasnet.com.
