Public Sector will have to change for growth

Head of the Public Sector Modernisation Division Veneice Pottinger Scott has said that the public sector will have to see its purpose as being crucial in driving economic growth in Jamaica.

"Development, so far, has not reached the level that we want, so it means that some things need to change ... and we think that we have come up with a programme that deals with some of the endemic issues in the public service," Pottinger Scott told The Gleaner.

In an exclusive interview, the head of the modernisation programme said about working with public-sector workers: "We are hoping that we will be able to make this difference".

long-run sustainability

"We have a five-year plan; we have an 18-month (plan); and we have to constantly revise the plan. It is not a one-time, once-and-for-all change and things will be normal. It will never be normal again because change is constant," Pottinger Scott said.

Public sector pension reform aimed at ensuring that the system is sustainable in the long run, with more efficient management of public pensions and improved monitoring arrangements, is under way, with the support of the World Bank.

"There is no doubt that in people's minds, how the public sector operates can affect the whole economic environment of a country," Pottinger Scott said, adding that one of the constant complaints is that there is too much bureaucracy, which stands in the way of doing business.

"I don't think anybody in the public sector believes that things must remain business as usual. The change is necessary. The Government has spent a lot of effort trying to deal with a lot of things," she said, while adding that fiscal reforms by themselves would not drive economic growth.