Observer column for 13 Jan 2014
by Jean Lowrie-Chin
| Shaggy and Tessanne Chin |
First the good news.
‘Shaggy & Friends’, supported by corporate Jamaica, showed that if
we gather top talent, if we have a convincing message, and if we are
well-organised– we can galvanise wide support for a good cause. We saw it happen at that benefit on January 4
on the grounds of Jamaica House.
Advertised to begin at 8 pm, we heard the opening words of the first
emcee at …exactly 8 pm. I was so
surprised that I almost checked the GPS on my smartphone to make sure that we
were in Jamaica – this was certainly not ‘Jamaica Time’.
Just a few weeks before the ‘Shaggy & Friends’
event, Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell was honoured for his support of Food for the
Poor projects; his lovely wife Rebecca Packer was on hand to receive the
award. In a conversation with Shaggy and
Rebecca at the homecoming for beloved Tessanne, I learned the extent of the
generosity of this inspiring philanthropist.
He was saying how much he admired Food for the Poor and I explained that
the charitable entity retained only five percent of donations for
administration. He remarked to Rebecca,
“You know, maybe we could do that, to keep it going all year.” It was then I realised that every single cent
earned by Shaggy and his generous friends from the concerts over the years had
been turned over to the Bustamante Hospital for Children.
'Big man don't cry'
'Big man don't cry'
A friend Rebecca Tulloch related to me that it was the
advanced equipment donated by Shaggy & Friends’ efforts that saved the life
of her baby nephew. “After the baby was
discharged from Bustamante Hospital, I saw Shaggy at an event and went up to him
to thank him. I told him that it was because of the machine he donated that my
nephew had survived.”
“I saw that
tears came to his eyes and he brushed them away quickly, because as his song
says, ‘Big Man Don’t Cry’,” she said with a smile. Rebecca happens to be the
niece of Graham Russell, from the famous Australian pop duo ‘Air Supply’ – now
that would be a great hook-up for next year’s ‘Shaggy & Friends’ concert!
‘Do
you see what I see?’
As I saw the government officials having a good time
at the Shaggy event, the words of that Christmas carol kept ringing in my head:
“Do you see what I see? Do you hear what
I hear?” The concert was such a metaphor for what Jamaica needs: talent,
patriotic fire and professional implementation.
 |
| Peter Moses (from Gleaner) |
It took me back to the three years I spent as a
member of the oversight Consultative Monitoring Group (CMG) led by that
champion for Jamaica Peter Moses, reviewing the excellent work of the Public
Sector Transformation Unit (PSTU) at the Office of the Prime Minister. The dynamic PSTU head, Patricia Sinclair-McCalla
and her team researched efficient public sector models in fellow Commonwealth
countries and engaged dedicated permanent secretaries in consultations which
resulted in a set of comprehensive recommendations.
The CMG (all volunteers) spent many hours listening,
reading and deliberating after which a final set of recommendations was
submitted to Cabinet in December 2012. Having fulfilled our mandate, the CMG resigned
en bloc.
Peter Moses commented, "Reflecting on the
experience of being the Chairman of the CMG, I first was extremely impressed by
the professional and effective work ethic of the PSTU, driven of course by the
energy and experience of Mrs. Patricia Sinclair-McCalla. Throughout the
exercise it became clear that the anticipated resistance to change was not
forthcoming from within the core of the public sector but that in fact there
was recognition that changes needed to take place to improve the efficiency of
the sector and that these stakeholders wanted to be a part of the exercise.”
He
continued: “Once the initiative was seen as not merely a job cutting exercise,
but more as a review of existing systems and structures to create savings from
an improved structure and efficiencies, then the engagement was extremely
productive. We never denied that there would be a reduction in the overall
number of jobs but that this would be driven by a process and in a transparent
manner. Against this background, ownership was then shared and the only
disconnect that sometimes surfaced was at the ministerial level where staff and
minister were not yet on the same page.”
Peter said there was concern about the lag in implementation, but noted: “Some optimism in this regard surfaced recently, with the announcement that a new oversight team will be selected to focus primarily on implementation."
 |
| Patricia Sinclair-McCalla |
This
implementation cannot come too soon. One of the Commonwealth countries visited
by Pat Sinclair-McCalla and her team in 2012, was Singapore, internationally
known for public sector best practices.
In a press briefing reported by Elaine Reckord of the JIS last year, Mrs
Sinclair McCalla said: “One of the
lessons we have learnt and which we would like to apply here is the shared
corporate services, labelled shared services in Singapore. In Jamaica,
Ministries and Agencies have individual ‘back-office’ operations
(administrative functions), such as human resource, finance, legal services,
ICT, asset management, procurement, legal services, communications and internal
audit. This modality would consolidate those administrative functions into a
management entity that provides service to a cluster of Ministries.”
Rampant indiscipline and
criminality
The Government should know that some of the most
steadfast, patriotic Jamaicans are losing patience with the
productivity-defying pace of their bureaucratic processes. This coupled with increasing anxiety over the
rampant indiscipline and criminality in the country, is not good for the
foreign direct investment that we are said to be courting.
Flow’s Marketing Director Donovan White explained to
Nationwide’s Cliff Hughes that the recent vandalism of Digicel and Columbus
fibre-optic cables is one of a series of acts which some link to the
scrap-metal trade. Is it time to suspend
and review this exercise again?
Hero,
driver Dennis Butler
If Jamaica looks like it is a burning tanker on the
verge of exploding, clearly we need someone like driver Dennis Butler at the
wheel. Last Thursday, in an amazing act
of bravery, the tanker driver for the Total petroleum company, on realizing
that his extinguisher was no match for the spreading flames, jumped back into
his burning truck and drove it to a safe area before exiting. Seconds later, the truck exploded on Mona
Road, echoing as far as the UWI campus.
Dennis Butler’s heroic act saved many lives. Many more are waiting to be saved by our
leaders. Please take the risks – media
is here to watch your backs.
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