Joe Issa Supports Move To Press On With Public Sector Reform

Mere weeks after announcing that a new head office would be built to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) some 100 vacant posts at the executive agency are to be abolished.

The move, said to involve a total of 138 posts across ministries, agencies and departments is stipulated by the Civil Service Establishment (General) Order, 2016, which was approved recently by the House of Representatives to effect changes to the 2015 Order, including reclassification and new posts created, re-titling and upgrading of posts and the effective dates for these changes.

Chairman of PICA- Joey Issa

Stating in an interview, that the public sector reform programmed is the centre piece of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionality, chairman of PICA Joe Issa, said “it is important to streamline how we do business, in order to keep us relevant and make our public sector more efficient and effective.”

“The way we have been doing business in Jamaica, our processes, etc., has gone out of whack with the best practices in the international community, so we need to change or be left behind by foreign investors, as well as by our own business sector that is thwart by bureaucracy and other structural impediments,” Issa explains.

Among the major changes to be effected by the Order is the modernization of the Accountant General’s Department to strengthen public financial management, in keeping with the thrust to improve efficiency in the public sector and to meet IMF conditionality, Minister of Finance and the Public Service Auddley Shaw has said, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Other changes reported include Amendment to the Judicature Resident Magistrate’s Act, which enacts the renaming of the senior resident magistrate to senior judge of the parish court and renaming the resident magistrate to judge of the parish court.

The 2016 Order, which was presented in Parliament by Minister Shaw, also includes the revision of salaries for the 2015 to 2017 contract period, based on the Heads of Agreement which was signed between the Government and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions. It also repeals the Office of the Trustee in Bankruptcy and establishes the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency and Office of the Government Trustee, the newspaper reported.

PICA, which became an executive agency on June 1, 2007, conducts incoming and outgoing immigration examination of all persons entering or leaving Jamaica by air and sea; it administers visas, entry permits and other documents for non-Jamaican visitors and residents; handles requests for permanent residency status; manages the deportation and repatriation of those persons not qualified to remain in Jamaica; and handles matters relating to refugees to the island.

According to its website, the agency is governed by the Jamaican Constitution, The Immigration Restriction (Commonwealth Citizen) Act, The Jamaica Nationality Act, The Alien’s Act, The Passport Act and Regulations, The Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act, The Caribbean Community (Free Movement) of Skilled Persons Act, The Executive Agencies Act 2002, and The Financial Administration and Audit Act.

2017/18 Budget: “Something for Everyone, More for Critical Some!” – Joe Issa

Founder of Cool Corp Joe Issa, a past economics and accounting major at not one, but two of the world’s top universities and hemispheres, who backs the free market and an adequate social safety net to deliver growth for Jamaica and a better life for workers, has characterized the 2017/18 budget as having something for everyone and more for some critical pillars of the economy.

Joey Issa

“I think this budget is well carved. First and foremost, we needed to continue the economic reform programme facilitating reduction in the country’s high debt structure of 120% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which is a major impediment to economic growth and a condition for our continued relationship with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) that also includes a primary surplus target of seven per cent of GDP.

“So I am pleased that these have been taken into account in casting the budget, evidenced by the over-50 per cent allocated to the Finance Ministry which leads the [economic] reform programme and in particular, the big increase in the amount allocated to pay debt, bearing in mind that as the debt goes down and more growth is realized, everyone benefits.

“In addition, it [the budget] needed to support the implementation of several growth-inducing [capital] projects, seen in the big increase in capital expenditure and the widening of the social safety net, as reflected by increases for PATH beneficiaries, as well as for the school feeding programme, which has gone up from three days to five days a week.

“Hence the priority given to making education and health care systems more relevant in the changing environment, increasing the capacity of the security forces to fight crime and protect citizens, facilitating the work of the PM’s Office to spur economic growth and create jobs, and renewing the focus on the justice system to not only bring greater justice to victims, but to also prevent incidents of crime and violence,” says Issa, in the interview, noting that he likes the choice of pillars under which crime will be fought.

The former London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) student, whose views on social and economic matters are widely sought, was commenting in an interview, on the just-tabled $710 billion budget for 2017-2018, which represented an increase of 20 per cent or $112 billion over the previous fiscal year and the sectors which featured more prominently, such as education, health, national security, economic growth and job creation, justice and the Prime Minister’s Office. All other sectors combined are allocated $52 billion. 

Commentators are said to agree with Issa that the budget has been cast to increase debt servicing, for which over $300 billion, an increase of 38 per cent is allocated and to comply with conditionality related to the fiscal targets in the renegotiated economic programme with the IMF, including the achievement of the primary balance target of 7 per cent GDP. Thus, the fiscal deficit was budgeted at 0.8 per cent of GDP.