THE EDITOR, Sir:IF GOVERNMENT ministers do what they are supposed to do, then Jamaica will benefit significantly. Doing the right thing means that a minister should manage his or her portfolio responsibilities with wisdom, ethics and fairness, at all times. It means awarding government contracts on the basis of which contractor best meets the requirements of expertise, honesty and reasonable costs for a particular job - not on the basis of party affiliation, friendship or underhanded deals.
BUDGETARY ALLOCATIONS
Government ministers must ensure that given their limited budgetary allocations the most valuable government programmes and policies, under their watch, are given priority treatment.
For a minister of education, this would mean ensuring that no public school across the island is short of desks and chairs, ensuring that schools are equipped with proper restroom facilities and ensuring that teachers are paid a reasonable salary. Doing the right thing means that, for example, a finance minister should not divert funds allocated to fundamentally important programmes such as the NIS for other uses.
Government ministers should do the right thing and promptly resign whenever, for example, a proven act of corruption/
impropriety emerges within a programme, institution or entity that falls under their portfolio responsibility - particularly when such an act could have been prevented had the minister effectively been doing his/her job of oversight.
Ideally, every government minister should ensure that his/her ministry is managed in such a manner that, on an annual basis, it gradually becomes more and more efficient and effective. Moreover, at the end of each fiscal year, each government minister's performance should be graded, via an established criteria, by a special oversight committee. Ministers who receive a failing grade should be demoted or replaced. If government ministers do the right thing on a consistent basis, in relation to their job, Jamaica's growth and development will be phenomenal.
I am, etc.,
PATRICK A GALLIMORE
pagalley@hotmail.com
Kingston
