Public Sector Urged to Become More Productive

Finance and Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, has urged the public sector to become more productive to overcome current economic challenges.
“One of the charges that we’re putting out there to the public sector… (is to) make a commitment to being more productive in your daily activities,” he said, contending that the efficient production and delivery of goods and services was one of the most important solutions in carrying Jamaica forward.
Addressing the recent Scotia DBG Corporate Investment Seminar at the Terra Nova Hotel in St. Andrew, Mr. Shaw, while contending that it would have been “fiscally irresponsible” not to have applied to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance under the prevailing circumstances, argued that borrowing was not the ultimate solution.
“It’s not whether we can access money from the IMF… the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) or the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Our challenge is that, over time, we are going to have to substitute earnings for borrowings. We cannot borrow our way to wealth… you borrow your way to persistent poverty. So we have to make that change to produce our way to wealth and peace,” the Finance Minister stressed.
Mr. Shaw noted that the Government in recent times, has had to “make very important decisions about controlling our public sector wage bill,” but assured that there is no need for fear and trepidation.
“But, there is also an opportunity for the public sector to become more productive. Productivity is not the preserve of the private sector… (it) is the preserve of…the people of Jamaica. When the public sector becomes more productive it means that they (are able) to deliver services to the public and to the private sector more efficiently, and that will help us to be more productive as a country.