Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

Industry Ministry Karl Samuda (right) speaking with Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi-Alemani, head of European Commission delegation in Jamaica, during the first in a series of roundtable discussions on steps to reduce bureaucratic delays in government service, hosted by the Target Growth Competitiveness Committee at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, February 26. Beside the ambassador is economist Dennis Morrison, former chair of the TGCC, while Jamaica Manufacturers' Association president, Omar Azan, is partially hidden at left. Samuda hosted the roundtable talks in his capacity as new TGCC chair. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Industry Minister Karl Samuda has set a target of 50 per cent by which to reduce bureaucratic red tape in the public sector over the next two to three years.

The minister gave the commitment shortly after hearing complaints from companies of delays and complicated procedures faced on a daily basis in transactions with government agencies.

"It can be done. There is the will on the part of the Government," Samuda said Tuesday at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Target Growth Competitiveness Committee (TGCC) in Kingston, a body he chairs.

"The legislative part of it, we are ready, willing and able to act as long as we get from you an approach that is acceptable to all."

Edward Chin-Mook, president of the Small Business Association of Jamaica, had been very critical of government agencies, which, he said ,were operating in an "old" paradigm.

He pointed to the practice of witnessing of documents by the justice of the peace, required by the Companies Office of Jamaica as one example.

"These are all from the archaic days when business persons did not have e-commerce," he said.

He also complained about the long waiting period persons had to endure when they went to do business at the Tax Audit and Assessment Department.

"The capacity there is completely out of sync," he said.

Christopher Zacca, president of the Private Sector Association of Jamaica (PSOJ) was equally critical of the agencies and recommended that a zero-tolerance approach be applied to corruption.

Zacca also suggested performance-based pay for civil servants.

Samuda, who succeeded economist Dennis Morrison as TGCC chair, said these problems would have to be addressed, and suggested that an action team be set up, comprising expertise from the public sector and the private sector, to make recommendations for legislation to effect required changes.

Bureaucracy unit

He also recommended that there should be one unit to address problems relating to bureaucracy, saying there were now too many entities - for example the Legs and Regs Project, the Development Council and the Private Sector Development's TGCC - dealing with the same issues.

"We can't continue to talk about removing bureaucracy through a multiplicity of agencies and various support groups," he said. "Can't we get that together and resolve that there be one unit that is dealing with bureaucracy at whatever level?"

The European Commission has committed $9 billion to the Government as budgetary support, with majority of the fund earmarked for eliminating the red tape surrounding projects.

Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, head of delegation of the European Commission in Jamaica, said the first disbursement of funds would be made in the next fiscal year.

But Mazzocchi-Alemanni also said there would be stipulation to this budgetary support, namely, that the Government would have to implement activities that will reduce red tape.

These, he said would include thereduction of the approval time for building permits to within 90 days, once all stipulations were met; enforcement of the Electronic Transactions Act; the simplification of import/export permits issuance and inspection processes, among other things.

The roundtable meeting was the first in the series of meetings that the TGCC will be hosting.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com