PM Golding: Productivity Depends on the Performance of the Public Sector

KINGSTON — Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding said that even as the public sector tightened its expenses, it must also be the instrument for growth stimulation.

Noting that Government was the biggest business in the country, the Prime Minister said that the country cannot perform well unless its biggest business also performs well. 

Mr. Golding was addressing executives of the public sector and the trade unions representing the public sector at a Public Sector Monitoring Committee seminar in Kingston today. The seminar seeks to arrive at consensus on the approach for public sector wages and conditions of employment as it relates to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) standby agreement conditionalities with Jamaica.

“What we need is to find the right mix, the right structure, the right relationship between the various arms and legs of government to give us the best possible level of efficiency that can be achieved,” he said.

In his address, the Financial Secretary, Dr. Wesley Hughes, said that as the public sector wage freeze was removed, the IMF standby conditions required government and trade unions to agree on the way that public debt would be put on a clear downward path.

The two-day seminar arranged by the Cabinet Office will examine medium-term economic growth; social partnership to achieve national objectives; the public sector transformation and productivity in the public sector.

The output of the seminar is that partners will decide how future collective bargaining will be conducted.

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