Opposition’s spokesman on finance Mark Golding can be easily numbered among the parliamentarians who take their jobs of representing inside Gordon House very seriously.
So, it was no surprise that he grasped Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke’s invitation to attend last Thursday’s disclosure on proposals to transform the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) into a modern central bank detached from the dictates of the finance minister, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.
Golding’s questions included whether there would be opportunity for the issue to be discussed in Parliament prior to the tabling of the amending Bills and the accompanying regulations. He suggested tabling a Green Paper for public discussion or sending the Bills to a joint select committee of the House of Representatives for review.
However, Dr Clarke reminded that the tabling of the Bills is a structural benchmark, included in the current Standby Agreement (SBA) between the Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with a timeline that would not accommodate a Green Paper at this time.
“We need to get it done in good time,” Clarke said.
However, he insisted that there would be ample time for debating after the Bills are tabled, and suggested discussions with the Opposition spokesman on the possibility of a more inclusive approach to the procedures, despite a September deadline.
On the surface, this might sound like an assertive response to what could be considered a fairly honest question. But, considering that the SBA has been in effect for nearly two years, it would have been the duty of the Opposition to study the proposal and formulate a response, which would now be very timely, in light of Clarke’s declarations.
Probably the Opposition did not take the new finance minister too seriously when he made his first public address after being appointed.
On that occasion in April, Dr Clarke stunned the audience, including myself, in a speech to a Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ)/Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) labour market forum at the Terra Nova Hotel, that highlighted the view that Jamaica must become disciplined in managing its economic affairs, and to ensure that there will be no need to return to the IMF after the current programme ends.
Golding himself made it clear last Thursday that, to his mind, the central bank has remained “functionally independent” for many years, subject to a fiscal responsibility framework supported by the Public Bodies Management Accountability (PBMA) Act and its companion legislation, the Financial Audit and Administration (FAA) Act.
He was also concerned that directors have expressed discomfort in the past with the power and responsibility the governor already has, and which could now elevate him to the position of an executive chairman in the modernised status.
However, the Government no doubt would much more appreciate some serious cooperation from the Opposition, a position that has developed into an essential ingredient for structural changes under either side in Parliament over recent years.
There is no doubt that the Government would much prefer cooperation in the processing of the legislation to meet these structural benchmark deadlines under the current agreement.
Clarke assured Golding that there would be ample opportunity for ventilation of his sides’ views on the developments when the amendments to the Bills are tabled in the House around October.
During the previous Government’s agreement with the IMF, on several occasions then — and on a couple of occasions since this Government came to office in 2016 — Bills have been tabled, debated and raced through the Parliament to make the benchmark deadlines. But some benchmarks have been kicked down the road like a can for years, including the seven per cent of gross domestic product wage Bill for the public sector, which is still unrealised.
But Clarke, being business-oriented, seems to have a different attitude, which insists on meeting deadlines, and it is obvious that he meant business when he told the labour market forum:
“In our programmed engagements with the IMF in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, our exits were short-lived. We exited those programmes only to return the following decade. This period of IMF engagement, however, stands out as distinct from earlier periods.”
It is interesting that it is Dr Clarke of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who has now assumed the leadership of that “mission of this generation” to follow up Jamaica’s 56th year political independence with the assumption of economic independence. This is a position the Opposition People’s National Party has always ascribed to its late leader and national hero, Norman Manley.
Let us hope that with Golding being from a business background, just like Clarke, there won’t be enough room left for jealousy to creep in and rob us of this opportunity to make good on the charge to the current generation to seek economic independence.
*** By the way, the Parliament is now officially on its summer break, with the Senate signing on to the break at the end of Friday’s sitting.
The House of Representatives is not expected to meet again either prior to mid-August, unless there is an emergency.
Some senators used the opportunity Friday to welcome the recent tribute paid to Opposition, Senator K D Knight and former Leader of Government Business Dorothy Lightbourne — two veteran Queen’s Counsels — along with former Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, were honoured by the Jamaican Bar Association at its annual banquet at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on July 13.
Government Senator Ransford Braham toasted Senator Knight as “a gentleman that is greatly admired not only for his eloquence”.
“I am privileged as a lawyer to declare that he is certainly among Jamaica’s very best,” Braham added.
Leader of Opposition Business, Senator Donna Scott Mottley, rated Knight as a “fine Jamaican” and recalled that she had shared office with Senator Lightbourne and found her to show “political balance” in their relationship.
source:-.jamaicaobserver.
