The Bahama Journal Editorial:

We are today quite certain that, were we to ask anyone with an iota of sense about their evaluation of the part played by government in the delivery of much needed public services; they would tell us that the public sector is bloated, inefficient and [on occasion] quite corrupt.

We also know it for a fact that; the public service does not provide this nation with what we would describe as value for money.

There is evidence in abundance to support the thesis that an inefficient and bloated public sector is inherently counter-productive to efforts to put The Bahamas on a more fruitful path to more sustained economic growth and social progress.

Long gone are the days when Bahamians could blissfully abide slackness and inefficiency in the public sector, safe in the comfort of knowing that the foreign sector would endlessly drive economic and social progress in The Bahamas.

There is a correlate to this argument which is that The Bahamas might have enjoyed an even higher standard of living in the past four decades had it not been for the massive wastefulness and inefficiency of successive Bahamian governments, all of which were ill-served by an outmoded public bureaucracy.

In addition, we are today quite certain that, things would change and for the better if more local level control could be brought to bear on matters that directly impinge on communities throughout the Bahamas.

Both the Progressive Liberal Party and its nemeses in the Free National Movement should – as a matter of the most urgent priority – let the Bahamian know what, if anything, they propose to do [anytime soon] about making genuine public sector reform a reality.

Clearly  then, the message we now send to all who would lead is that they should take to heart the conclusion that, the Bahamian people need far more than platitudes as they decide their choice of law-makers.

They need leaders who have some clue as to how government itself can become more responsive to the felt needs and demand made by the Bahamian people.

Public sector reform is not only desirable, but necessary if The Bahamas is to become more productive.

While this penchant and respect for tradition is a social good, its downside is that it can become a major constraint on development in a time when innovation and change are the order of the day.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly as it is currently being expressed in repeated calls for public sector reform.

To this day, work in the public service brings with it security of tenure, easy money and a pension when these workers retire.

Mercifully, this regime is being challenged here at home and from abroad. As The Bahamas gears itself to cope with pressures for it to become more productive, there is the dawning realization that public sector reform is not only desirable, but that it is necessary.

One indicator of this new appreciation of the facts of life in an increasingly interdependent world is noted in recent calls for the government to hold the line on employment and pay in the public sector. Another is the proposal that pay increases should be linked to productivity.

These suggestions speak to the need for public sector enterprises to become more entrepreneurial, and that reward for labor is commensurate with performance and productivity.

If it is true - as we now surmise - that productivity is low in the public service precisely because respect, recognition and reward come with position and not for performance.

This sad state of affairs might explain why some of the most senior managers in the public sector earn so much for doing so little.

Having grown accustomed to being little more than highly paid clerical assistants to Cabinet Minister, some of these men and women become, over time, the epitome of mediocrity.

Few of these people would or could last twenty-four hours in the foreign sector of the Bahamian economy!

If, perchance, anyone at any position in the management of Bahamasair were to be asked to base their pay on performance and productivity, practically everyone on the payroll of the hapless national flag carrier would owe the government money.

Similar nightmares exist elsewhere in the public service.

Evidently, therefore, very many other public sector workers lower down on the same public sector totem pole now make do with bribes and other inducements.

To be sure, this list can be extended to include other egregious examples of public sector enterprises where low productivity and shoddy performance are being respected, rewarded and recognized as par for the course in an inefficient and backward public sector.

The essence of the matter, then, is that if this country is to progress, moving forward, we must –as a people united in service and love - find a way to break with this tradition of featherbedding, ease and security of tenure in the public service.

January 14, 2011

The Bahama Journal Editorial

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