WHILE GOVERNMENT and trade unions are pondering how to finance the ballooning public-sector wage bill, international management consultant Trevor Hamilton has called for the laying off of thousands of civil servants.

He suggests a 30 per cent reduction in the number of civil servants as well as the divestment of 300 state-run entities, as part of a 10-point programme to stimulate domestic economic growth. He discusses this at length in a Sunday Gleaner article titled 'Many opportunities to prosper from crisis'.

Hamilton sees an opportunity for the growth of small businesses arising from the divestment of public services. "There will be increased opportunities for local investors to invest their excess liquidity ... there will be increased revenue to Government and reduced public expenditure on these activities (and) there will be expansion in employment when these activities are modernised," Hamilton argues.

Automatically eligible

Laid-off public-sector personnel, he advises, should automatically be eligible to bid for the divested government services, possibly through the establishment of Employee Share Ownership Plans, as well as enjoy eligibility to government-secured low-cost business loans.

Hamilton further suggests that retrenched employees in the private and public sectors be given tax exemption for money spent from their settlements for retraining or business investment.

Danny Roberts, vice-president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, disagrees with Hamilton's proposal to lay off thousands of public-sector employees, arguing that "the focus must be on reinventing government to firstly become more results-oriented".

Edward Chinmook, president of the Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ), is supportive of the layoff and redeployment of civil servants, but he believes this "is easier said than done". Success, he suggests, would require unions to reculturise public-sector employees.

,b>Supportive of proposals

However, Chinmook is supportive of the proposals for Government to divest 300 undercapitalised and low-performing entities, and urges Government to "exercise decisive leadership" on the matter. He says the SBAJ is still waiting to meet with government officials to commence implementation of the 15 per cent small business procurement policy that Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced as part of the stimulus package last December.

Trade unionist Danny Roberts, while supportive of the divestment of inefficient public-sector entities, cautions that "we have to preserve the cardinal role of Government to control those institutions which either provide social or welfare benefits for the majority of Jamaicans".

byron.buckley@gleanerjm.com

Are Dr Hamilton's proposals workable?