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.