GOVERNMENT ECOnomic advisor Dennis Morrison, has charged the "powerful" business sector with being politically biased against the ruling Peoples National Party.
Morrison, who holds key positions in two of Jamaica's top income earning industries, said the business sector has a tendency to be less cooperative than the labour and unions in the social partnership talks to agree on adjustments within the economy. He suggested that this was linked to political preference.
"There seems to be a view that one group of the political system which is drawn from one class is less preferred by the ruling class," said Morrison, failing to qualify whether what he said was the view of the Patterson Administration.
He further intimated that businesses had less loyalty to the country, even as he criticised the way in which businesses are currently organised, and suggested reforms down to the level of the firm.
"The unions act cohesively. Our ruling class does not quite operate in that way. They have one foot in, one foot out," he told an economic forum held Thursday night on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies.
"There is a view that only one element of the political system could get them to act," said the senior director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute and chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board.
But Morrison's implication that the private sector would have been more receptive to reforms suggested by a Jamaica Labour Party Government was not left unchallenged.
"It is wrong to suggest that private sector interests are driven by class considerations in the politics," said Opposition Senator Bruce Golding, another presenter at the forum, and himself a businessman.
"There are persons within the Government whom they admire, but also persons whom they loathe. It's the same for the Opposition," said Golding, further indicating that businesses were more caught up with survival issues.
There were murmurs of assent from the academics on the floor, propelling Morrison back to the podium to clarify his statement.
"I wasn't trying to suggest that private sector decisions are driven largely by political considerations," he said. "I repeat, there are powerful interests that have one foot in and one foot out."
Entitled 'Economic Growth in Jamaica', the symposium was hosted by the Mona School of Business, and had presentations from Golding, Morrison and Professor Alfred Francis of the Department of Economics.
Morrison's charges were levelled as he discussed adjustments required for growth, criticising the Government at the same time for having "failed to act decisively" in addressing the "significant problems" between labour and the owners of capital - two of the critical partners in the consultations.
There is a need he said to determine the industries that the country will centre on, and to find agreement on the relationship between labour and capital, specifically, the share between worker pay and re-investments in the business.
Morrison also charged the state with not having gone far enough in reforming aspects of the public sector that impinge on investment, such as the land agencies and those that grant fiscal incentives.
Noting that there was little manoeuvring that Government could do in relation to interest payments on its debt, the economic advisor said the areas needing consultations before the adjustments can occur involve Govern-ment expenditure on its approximate $45 billion wage bill, and more immediately, the $20 billion of programmed spending which he said can be more easily adjusted over the short term.
He disagreed with Senator Golding that it was popularity and re-election considerations that were mitigating against Govern-ment taking the tough fiscal decisions on borrowing and expenditure cuts, arguing that the administration was more fearful of a breakdown in social stability.
The approach to be taken, he said, cannot be left to "a set of people in Gordon House", but has to decided in tandem with the social partners.
