As Finance Minister James Smith indicated recently on a radio talk show, our huge civil service establishment ﾖ some 20,000 people ﾖis basically a social welfare front.
He noted that calls to cut the civil service overlook the fact that The Bahamas has no real social safety net and thousands of people would be on the streets with little prospect of supporting themselves if cuts were made. This could lead to social instability or oppressive taxation or both.
We commend this view to the public-service unions and others demanding pay rises despite the prospect of an economic crisis that would ensue, according to no less an authority than Prime Minister Perry Christie himself.
Outside of the barely functioning government offices, we can assure you there is very little sympathy for pay rises for civil servants. For the most part, they are seen as people who obstruct our lives by playing petty bureaucratic games, who abuse their positions in many indirect ways (such as subsidised transportation and other unwarranted perks), and who have a job for life whether they perform a useful function or not.
You all know the score. We arrive at work to read the paper. Then we have breakfast. Then we talk about what to have for lunch. Then we have lunch. And then we go to pick up the kids. Another day, another dollar. We are sure that the hard-working Bahamians out there who haven’t seen a pay increase in years would like to see this gravy train stopped.
Unfortunately, the public service is the biggest employer in the country, but there are creative ways to address that.
While we are selling off Batelco to raise revenue and increase competitiveness, so we should be thinking of transforming whole sections of the public service into private enterprise. Time for more than just talking of e-government and, when it is implemented, what about using those systems and operators to service other paying enterprises. Just laying off civil servants, or refusing to give contracted pay increases, are not creative solutions.
We support the government’s position and we were surprised that it had the political will to take it, though it left itself an out and hinted the increases could come by December, as though there’s going to suddenly be a new source of revenue. (Junkanoo? Santa Claus?)
We hope the government will find the political will to deal with other problems, such as defaulting students and other “untouchable” issues involving fish vendors, taxi drivers, work permits and Haitian immigrants (to name a few).
We also note that the Christie administration has persuaded itself of the absolute necessity for inflows of foreign investment to maintain our prosperity. It is embarking on the same road paved by the Ingraham government in the ’90s. We will not criticise the Prime Minister for that irony. It is the right thing to do, and it is the first real evidence we have had of new thinking in the so-called “new PLP.”
Editorial, The Nassau Guardian
