Restructuring the Economy – Part 5
Today, I finalise my look at restructuring the economy by dealing with the staff costs. When reducing staff it should not be done by simply choosing a number, each department should be assessed to identify how many staff members are needed. Some departments may be over staffed while others may not have sufficient.
Efforts have been made to reclassify staff and to bring them closer to salaries that exist in the private sector. However the area of vacation leave has not been adjusted with many staff still being entitled to three months leave plus departmental leave, etc. These are costs that can no longer be afforded, many private companies had to discontinue those benefits and the government needs to follow suit.
I believe that we will have to reduce the size of the army. Currently we have no need for such a large army and it can always be increased in the future. This recommendation may surprise you – reduce the police force by 20-25%. I know I can hear you saying “how can we reduce the police force when the level of crime is so high?” Firstly, the reduction represents an opportunity to weed out the corrupt officers. Sending home persons suspected of being involved in criminal activities sends a message to those who remain that we are tough on crime. Secondly, utilise your resources more effectively, it makes no sense to have persons who are trained to fight crime working primarily in traffic. We should have traffic warden to enforce the road code leaving the police to deal with crime. In addition shift civil servants to the police stations to take over admin functions that the police are currently doing. In order to deal with crime, the police need to be out in the neighbourhoods where the crime is taking place and not stuck in an office somewhere.
Lastly, shift persons from various offices to the Tax department and assign them to collecting the various outstanding taxes i.e. property tax, GCT, Income tax, Parish council fees for construction, business licences, etc. Their quota must be to collect sufficient taxes to pay for their salaries. There is a lot of money in the informal economy to be collected and we need to ensure that each person pays their fair share. We must have zero tolerance for tax evasion so that we can reduce tax rates for everyone.
Difficult choices have to be made next year whether we like it or not. It is up to the government to have a comprehensive plan to deal with the economy so that Jamaica can have a brighter future.
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3 Responses to “Restructuring the Economy – Part 5”
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Reducing the Army is something I had called for , for a long time now.. what we can do with the army.. is to use them as the new enforcement branch of the police force.. where we make two good team out of the army..1 form a swat team , and another team like the FBI in the states…
with the army now press into service.. it would be much easier to weed out the police force..
Place some of the senior army officers.. to head the tax department and some of the other agencies…all government agencies island wide must be computerized.. all police vehicles must also be computerize…
The real key to collecting tax more efficiently and fairly…
there should be a permit system.. where every thing you are going to do you need a permit.. that way you can tax people right there .. and it will be much easier to find tax cheats… because now no one could sell nothing with out a permit…And there shouldn’t be any red tape.. in getting a permit..
Couple with a functional postal service… that work a postal address must be mandatory where you can be able to send out tax forms and also reminders and warnings..
Yes the punishment must be so severe that no one no matter hos connected you are to the Prime Minister. you cant escape paying your taxes.. that’s why you would need people from the army to work in the tax department people with strict discipline.. where not even the Prime Minister.. cant tell them that they cant collect from this or that person…
W need transparency.. we also must have a bipartisan debate on all laws before they are implemented.. get read of all those commissions.. they serve no purpose..
Once the economy turn around.. we must reform the constitution.. to make it more clearer and simpler.. where education,Health care and taxes must form the basic of the new constitution..Abuse of tax payers money, corruption and bribery,will send any one straight to the slammer.. No matter who it is just like in the united states…
A quoter system would not work. Because the people are not discipline enough to do that, they will do things that will still make them collect less tax.. because they will go after the little guys. just like it is now.. they wouldn be ready, for say, seizing a supermarket on the spot.. or a factory.. or so on, because bribery would prevent some of them from doing so…We have to be able to cut corruption drastically
there should be information, information,information. on all things to the entire population.. the more people are informed the easier it is for government to operate efficiently.. so there must be a teaching program.. government must advertised.. on TV radio and in the paper..
MY TWO CENTS WORTH..
R.N.C
A sophisticated tax base, A comprenhensive overall of the tax code coupled with a thorough revision of the tax laws. Introduce legislation that is current with e-commerce, globalization, intellectual property and real estate transaction. Perhaps we couldbegin with start initiating these moves instead of waiting forthe IMF to tellus
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