An investment of $1 million dollars to reform the public sector may be required this year in order to get it where the Government intends for it to be.
This was revealed on Wednesday, by Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Sector, Fred Mitchell, as he addressed a Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Buena Vista Restaurant on the topic of “Preparing for changes in foreign trade and relations.”
“The Government will no doubt be criticised for investing in something that bears, today, no tangible evidence of change; but as sure as one and one are two, the investment if made, will within 10 years transform the way the Government provides services to the Bahamian people,” Minister Mitchell said.
“Whether we like it or not, there are powerful forces in the world at work. Powerful intellectual influences are at work that are reshaping the world around us. It is reshaping us in subtle and not so subtle ways and the present way of doing business is not acceptable, and will not fit with their intellectual acuity,” he added.
And so, Minister Mitchell said, change has come knocking. He explained that it is the role of the Government to facilitate that change.
He remembered that as an Opposition member he often observed that successive Bahamian Governments, and in other societies, found themselves in the position of being the agent that restrained change, rather than the agent that promotes change.
Minister Mitchell said with regard to the changes that are expected to come in The Bahamas’ foreign trade relations as a country and as a region, “it must be the role of Government to prepare the country for what is to come.”
He explained that public sector reform is to lay the infrastructure, both social and physical, to ensure that the public sector creates in the private sector.
“The main role of Government must be to create jobs for the country. To expand the economy, even as it adheres to the task of keeping peace and good order,” Minister Mitchell said, noting that he is asking for a cultural shift in the country about this fact.
“The trade union leaders, the leaders of civil society generally, including the church, will have to face demands for the more efficient use of time. The changing of public ceremonies that we have and the time it takes to execute them and public business generally,” he said.
Minister Mitchell expressed the opinion that all public ceremonies in The Bahamas should be confined to one hour or less.
“It will also require in the public service more flexible work rules, and already discussions have begun on what we can do to move that process along,” he said.
But, Minister Mitchell noted that how we pay for change is paramount. He said for societies in the Caribbean they must face changes in its systems of taxation.
The IMF has told the Government that in The Bahamas there is a lack of appreciation for paying taxes, and in their surveys they found that most people said they simply did not pay their taxes or feel the need to pay their taxes because they could see no connection between the payment of their taxes and an improvement in their daily lives.
“In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is charged with the responsibility of defending the country’s interest abroad, I have asked for this cultural shift to be evidenced by an acceptable of all staff that the public has the right to know what we do and must be informed of what we do,” he said.
He informed that it is in this connection, that a web site is being built and the infrastructure for connectivity electronically is being enhanced.
Minister Mitchell said it is his feeling that by keeping the public informed about what it does, “we can get the resources from the taxes of public to continue our work for the country.”
At the conclusion of the luncheon, Minister Mitchell was scheduled to meet with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank to discuss the same issue.
By Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
