Government needs greater premium on commitments

WHEN FINANCE Minister Dr Peter Phillips tables the 2014-2015 Estimates of Expenditure in the House of Representatives on Thursday, it will be the last time, hopefully, that the Budget is being laid after the fiscal year has started.

Under the right-hand stick of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Budget will have to be tabled by latest end of March.

Phillips has acknowledged that the current situation is untidy, especially since it takes at least one month for the Budget to be debated and passed. The effect is that the entire Government operates during this period without a budget, making an already inefficient apparatus creek. The Gavel hopes that in this new dispensation, the Estimates will be passed before April 1 each year. This may mean that they are tabled by February each year, allowing for the same robust debate in Parliament, and passed before the new fiscal year. It is such a pity that it took the IMF to get us to this stage.

But considering how lax we have been in administering our own affairs, it might not be a bad idea to have big brother insisting we do the things we say we will.

Throne speech programmes

This is especially so for programmes announced in the Throne Speech.

Last year, the Queen, through her representative, Sir Patrick Allen, announced several programmes and projects that would be implemented this year. Legislatively, Sir Patrick said that bills would be tabled to allow for the amendment of the Road Traffic Act and Transport Authority Act with the objective of ensuring that the gaps in the road traffic legislation affecting enforcement of road traffic laws are addressed.

Well, the parliamentary year ends today, and no such bill has been tabled.

Sir Patrick had also announced that a Public Sector Procurement Bill to provide the framework for a Public Sector Procurement System and legally separate the National Contracts Commission from the Office of the Contractor General would have been tabled. Surely he can't be talking about the recently tabled Integrity Commission bill, because the provisions will not achieve the very objectives he outlined.

In addition, we are still awaiting the tabling of bills for the establishment of a Statutory Framework for the Court Management Service, and legislation to enable the court to grant specified discounts on years of imprisonment in the case of guilty pleas for certain offences, which now attract a mandatory minimum sentence.

Credibility problem

While we laud the Parliament for passing 40 bills in the last calendar year and 29 in the legislative year, anyone who seeks to argue that the failure to deliver the other bills can be excused should not be entertained. The fact is that the Government, while being aware of IMF requirements, has told the country that notwithstanding those pressures, the parliamentary counsel would draft those bills, and they would be put before the people's representatives for a decision.

The failure to honour one's words creates a credibility problem, and this, perhaps, explains the level of apathy in the country. It is high time we place a greater premium on the commitments we make. Indeed, if even for the optics, the Parliament should have long engaged in the debate on the bills to replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice. It is shameful that the Opposition has adopted an anti-independent thought posture on the matter, to the point where its leader, Andrew Holness, is prepared to 'fire' senators who have a preference for the Caribbean court.

Equally disgraceful is the fact that it has been two years since the bills have been brought to Parliament, yet there has been no debate on them. We are now told by Phillip Paulwell, the leader of government business in the House, that efforts are being made to strike a deal behind the scenes. That, however, does not provide any comfort for those of us who feel a sense of disappointment about the tortoise pace at which we have been moving to deepen our sovereignty.

Well do we recall Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller telling us in January 2012 that in Jamaica's 50th year of Independence, her Government would be taking tangible steps to replace the Queen as head of state. But fast forward two years, and it is the Queen who, through Sir Patrick, will be outlining the plans and programmes of the Government for the year.

Perhaps we should outsource these sovereignty issues to the IMF. At the very least, we would have already seen the back of the Throne Speech.

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