Sunday, August 28, 2016

Statistics - Measuring Observation and the evolution of the 'word'

In the performance of just about anything, one needs to perform some type of analysis, this is accomplished through some measurement for relative comparison,  below is an evolutionary trail of the word "statistics"

Yes, the book about the history of statistics has been written, in case you were wondering. A History of Statistics in New Zealand was published in 1999, with funding from the New Zealand Statistical Association and the Lotteries Commission of New Zealand. H S (Stan) Roberts edited the history, and wrote substantial sections. It’s now available for free download here – the usual caveats about attribution apply. And it opens by tracing the history and usage of the word statistics:
“Statistics”, like most words, is continually changing its meaning. In order to find the meaning of a word we tend to reach for a dictionary, but dictionaries do not so much “define” the meanings of words, but rather give their current usages, together with examples. Following are examples relating to statistics taken from the 1933 Oxford English Dictionary (13 Vols). Note that in each entry the date indicates the first usage found.
Statism: Subservience to political expediency in religious matters. 1609 – “Religion turned into Statisme will soon prooue Atheisme.”
Statist: One skilled in state affairs, one having political knowledge, power, or influence; a politician, statesman. Very common in 17th c. 1584 – “When he plais the Statist, wringing veri unlukkili some of Machiavels Avioxmes to serve his Purpos then indeed; then he tryumphes.”
Statistical: 1. Of, or pertaining to statistics, consisting or founded on collections of numerical facts, esp. with reference to economic, sanitary, and vital conditions. 1787 “The work (by Zimmerman) before us is properly statistical. It consists of different tables, containing a general comparative view of the forces, the government, the extent and population of the different kingdoms of Europe.” 2: Of a writer, etc: Dealing with statistics. 1787 – “Some respectable statistical writers.”
Statistician: One versed or engaged in collecting and tabulating statistics. 1825 – “The object of the statistician is to describe the condition of a particular country at a particular period.”
Statistics: In early use, that branch of political science, dealing with the collection, classification, and discussion of facts (especially of a numerical kind), bearing on the condition of a state or community. In recent use, the department of study that has for its object the collection and arrangement of numerical facts or data, whether relating to human affairs or to natural phenomena. 1787 – Zimmerman – “This science distinguished by the newly-coined name of Statistics, is become a favourite in Germany.”
Statistic: The earliest known occurrence of the word seems to be in the title of the satirical work “Microscopium Statisticum”, by Helenus Politanus, Frankfort (1672). Here the sense is prob. “pertaining to statists or to statecraft”.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1976) gives us two modern usages.

Statistics: 1. Numerical facts systematically collected 2: Science of collecting, classifying and using statistics. 

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Political Governance and Administrative Governance

THIS BLOG IS POLITICALLY NEUTRAL. 

ITS ABOUT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND RELATED SCIENCES.


Political Governance and Administrative Governance are not the same, but rather two sides of one coin. The purpose of this blog topic is to provide scientific reasoning about this coin.

Head: should and will be represented in this blog as: Administrative Governance

Tail: should and will be represented in this blog as: Political Governance

This reasoning will cite works from Woodrow Wilson and Frederick Taylor.

Woodrow Wilson: (28th US President)
"Government should be businesslike, but government is not business its organic social work"


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One reality of Jamaica's' political culture and  Politics in general is that Politicians and Electors (Voters) oftentimes construe, mix up/oblivious of the difference between Political Governance (Political Science) and Administrative Governance (Public Administration). Simple analogy; if your car needs repairs, you hire a mechanic, if you have dental issues you hire a dentist, if you are experiencing medical issues you visit a doctor and so on and so forth.

If one subscribe to the above antecedent common sense logic, one should seek to hire/elect persons so appropriately qualified/trained, Why then are we surprised when politicians whom (if we are lucky) possess some formal training/education in various areas other than Public Administration? This reality will more likely lead to inadequate or mis-diagnosis of needs and  mal-aligned solutions, consequently rendering the citizens with a lesser quality of life. On the contrary, if we continue along the common sense logics continuum. the inverse reality will/would lead to a much improved quality of life for the affected citizens. Elect/Nominate representatives that are trained/educated in Public Administration, they are more likely to see correlations between public policy and quality of life initiatives and qualified in the requisite discipline to effect material changes.

The data sets have been consistent over the last 50+ years, in order to positively impact these benchmark data set otherwise called tell tale indicators of poverty and chronic suffering, it is necessary to change the narrative.

All this sounds rather simplistic and it is. However, within this simplicity is embedded sound logic and the proof as they say is in the pudding, what pudding? Lets look at some key data indicators,,,,,

This trend has been in place for the last 50+ years (not relative to any particular ruling party):

POPULATION
GDP
PER CAPITA INCOME
POVERTY
UNEMPLOYMENT
2.8 M
GDP: $25.2 B
Growth 0.1%
Inflation (CPI):7.3%
Public Debt 145  % of GDP,

Overall Tax burden 23.4 %
$9,100
17%
13%

Per Capita Income Trend Line......


Country
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
3,350
3,700
3,700
3,900
3,900
4,100
4,500
4,600
7,400
7,500
8,400
8,300
9,100


  • Lets put this in real time applied perspective $9,100J/$86US (12/2011 forex exchange rate) = $106 US annually. 
  • 17% poverty 2.8*.17=476,000 person living in poverty. This number 17% plus 13% unemployment represents 30% of the total population living at or below the poverty line. Approximately (840.000) 1 in 3  people that you run into daily are severely economically disadvantaged

"For decades, Jamaica has struggled with low growth, high public debt and a number of external shocks that have further weakened the economy. Over the last 30 years real per capita GDP increased at an average of just one percent per year, making Jamaica one of the slowest growing developing countries in the world"  http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/jamaica/overview 

How do these data set/numbers translate: Ask Ms. Mary and Farmer George going back from slavery days. 'The dutty tuff and wi always hungry, life ruff"....(do not misconstrue this as any particular political statement, its not. This observation is a numbers snap shot of the socio-economic status (SES) of the population over time (time series data).

Here is the reality. The lack of professionals appropriately trained in the necessary administrative skillsets of Administrative Management, enables otherwise very bright people to think and reason that; if we keep sacrificing things will change. The data trend line says otherwise.

Here is the crux of this panacea:

Business is measured by dollars (Profit and Loss)

Government Operations and related management is measured by Quality of life. 

Remember, Government is not business. but needs to be businesslike to be effective.

Wilson reasoned: "the  required profession of operating/running government is the discipline of Public Administration and this discipline should be implemented with some degree of separation from Politics"

Politics requires a different type of skillset/discipline ie Political Science. Wilson reasoned that government should be operated by a skilled professional workforce, adequately trained in the theories and application of Public Administration, thereby structurally ensuring that the necessary and appropriate skillsets are embedded in the cultural fabric of government and are measurable. Refer to Woodrow Wilson classic: http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/woodrow-wilson-on-administration.

Examples of Wilson's Theory

Business is measured by dollars (Profit and Loss)

 Government is not business. but needs to be businesslike to be effective.

Very businesslike... and laying the infrastructure for effectiveness, however, if managed the same way through political methodologies as opposed to administrative management methods, well.... you guessed it...back to the chronic results as reflected in our benchmark data sets...poverty and unemployment 'positivism' (movement in the right direction) with bypass the very people who make up those numbers.

"Alpart to resume mining next month
Tuesday, December 23, 2014    
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Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell (left) announcing the resumption of mining activities at the Alpart Alumina Plant in Nain, St Elizabeth, during a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, yesterday. Also pictured is UC Rusal Country Manager Igor Dorofeev. (PHOTO: BRYAN CUMMINGS

RUSSIAN company UC RUSAL is to finally resume bauxite mining in Jamaica next month, ahead of the reopening of the Alpart refinery at Nain in St Elizabeth on December 1, 2016.
The plant was closed for the last five years, reportedly due to low market price and high production costs.

Mining and Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, who made the announcement about the planned opening at a press conference at Jamaica House yesterday, said Cabinet approved his submission for RUSAL Alpart Jamaica to mine and export up to two million crude wet tonnes of monohydrate bauxite over an 18-month period, with mining commencing in January 2015 and export in July 2015.
"The new deal represents an expression of the Government's commitment to ensure that the full potential of the bauxite/alumina industry is realised in the shortest possible time as well (as) an expression of confidence on the part of UC RUSAL in the future of our bauxite and alumina industry," Paulwell said.

The minister explained that the deal will see employment of up to 250 Jamaican contractors at full mining capacity; commencement of port development works next February; repairs of affected roads and related activities for refinery readiness in the second quarter of 2016 and the establishment of appropriate and agreed energy solutions for the reopened refinery, as well as significant electricity supply to the electricity to grid.

Under the agreement, Alpart at start-up, according to Paulwell, will have access to the allocation of 30 years' bauxite reserves to meet its capacity. He further explained that in order to raise economic  efficiency of alumina production at Alpart, UC RUSAL will modernise the facility, particularly through conversion from heavy fuel oil to gas in order to generate steam and electricity.

Paulwell said the ethane-fuelled co-generation facility will be commissioned before the end of 2017 and the Jamaica authorities will facilitate access to the Jamaican energy grid.
In addition, Paulwell said Alpart's production will be dedicated to the 600,000 tonnes per annum Boguchany Energo-Metallurgical Union aluminium smelter which will be completed in Russia's Krasnoyarsk.

"The arrangement that has been consummated with RUSAL Alpart Jamaica reflects a positive partnership and signals the intention of both parties to proceed in a mutually beneficial manner, earning the investor profitable returns on its investment, while generating national income and the creation of jobs," the minister said.

He noted that RUSAL Alpart Jamaica will represent a large production complex in Jamaica with its own bauxite mines to feed alumina production. Annual production capacity of the complex is expected to be some 1.65 million tonnes of smelter-grade alumina. The minister said the investment in plant modernisation, development of port facilities and the ethane co-generation facility is in the region of $400 million.

Among the cost-benefit of utilising this alternate energy source, according to Paulwell, will be the provision of more reliable utility generation equipment and up to 25 per cent reduction in overall electricity rates. Paulwell said this deal will have significant impact on the national economy, as the reopened refinery, with a capacity for export at 1.65 million tonnes per year and export value of over US$500 million, will also see 300 to 400 people employed in the construction of the new power plant over the 27-month period. Operation of the new gas power plant facilities will require between 80 and 100 employees and contractors; and re-commissioning of Alpart's refinery, port, mines, and other facilities, will generate at least 1,000 to 1,200 employees and contractors over the 15-18-month period.

"This long-awaited deal must be seen as a real game-changer in Jamaica's bauxite and alumina industry," Paulwell said. He noted that even without trespassing on protected areas, Jamaica has reserves that can support viable mining and refining activities for more than half-a-century



Example of Wilson's Theory

Government Operations and related management is measured by Quality of life. 


Example of unbusinesslike policy, poor quality of life and laying the infrastructure for future preventable burden on the health sector budget. This is not a political statement, as this problem should have been eliminated 50+ years ago and we have experienced several changes in governmental management. Do we see or possess the ability to see the correlation between airbourne diseases, water table, pit toilets, food chain and quality of life?

"A breath of fresh air for New Broughton Primary
Japan, Food for the Poor join hands in sanitation project
Garfield Myers
Wednesday, March 10, 2010     1 comment
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Japan's Ambassador to Jamaica Hiroshi Yamaguchi (second left) cuts the ribbon to formally open a new sanitation block to replace a pit toilet system at the New Broughton Primary School in South Manchester recently. Others (from left) are Ryan Peralto, CEO of Food For The Poor; New Broughton students Javian Cohen and Abigail Taija; school principal Fitzroy Francis; and pastor of the New Broughton United Church, Reverend Edmond Folkes. (Photo: Gregory Bennett) 

MANDEVILLE, Manchester -- Students at the New Broughton Primary School in South Manchester are the latest beneficiaries of an ambitious drive by the charitable group Food for the Poor to replace pit toilets with running water facilities in as many schools "as possible" across Jamaica.

The Japanese Government donated the equivalent of just over $1 million for the New Broughton project as part of an overall gift of $92,000, which Ryan Peralto -- CEO of Food for the Poor -- says will fund 10 such projects across Jamaica.

According to Peralto, there are 235 schools in deep rural Jamaica which still use pit latrines and "what we (Food for the Poor) want to do is to convert as many of those... as possible into flush toilet facilities". He said the long-term goal was being handicapped by a shortage of funds.

"It's tricky because the economy is the way it is .The issue is just the funds. Funds are slow," Peralto told the Observer, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the school recently.

Under the existing arrangement, Food for the Poor seeks out donors for the sanitation programme and implements projects. The contract for the partnership with Japan was signed in November and Peralto expects that the facilities for all ten schools will be completed next month.

In the case of the New Broughton Primary School, the Japanese funding -- described by Japan's Ambassador to Jamaica Hiroshi Yamaguchi "as a small gift for the children" -- made possible the installation of seven flush toilets, four wash basins and a urinal to be used by 112 children. The Japanese gift also paid for the construction of a manhole and septic tank.

Ten-year-old Abigail Taija, who said thanks to Yamaguchi and his staff on behalf of the school community, pledged that the students "will make full use of the facilities that you have given to us".
"There are not words to express our gratitude," she told the amabassador.

Member of Parliament for South Manchester Michael Peart donated two plastic water storage tanks with combined capacity of 1,880 gallons, which will specifically service the toilet facilities. Two large rainwater catchment tanks will be the primary source of water, supplemented by trucking when necessary.
School principal Fitzroy Francis said the project was the fulfilment of years of seeking help.
"From way back we have been trying... the Ministry of Education and others, but we were told it couldn't happen because of budgetary constraints. Then last year, as a result of the joint venture between the Japanese and Food for the Poor, we succeeded," he said.

Francis had free advice for other school principals trying to secure similar sanitation projects. "First of all you must develop a serious plan as a basis for any negotiation. Then you need to convince the donors of your vision and determination. There must be strong and determined leadership to get the job done," he said."


http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/New-Broughton-Primary-gets-pit-toilets_7474085

I commend the effort to eliminate this health crisis, but the initiative is a day late and a dollar short. "According to Peralto, there are 235 schools in deep rural Jamaica which still use pit latrines" 
..........in 2014. Two sides of one coin Political Governance vs Administrative Governance.

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Scientific Management 


Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management

Understanding Taylorism and Early Management Theory


Taylor investigated the "science" of shoveling.
© iStockphoto/Toprawman
How did current management theories develop?
People have been managing work for hundreds of years, and we can trace formal management ideas to the 1700s. But the most significant developments in management theory emerged in the 20th century. We owe much of our understanding of managerial practices to the many theorists of this period, who tried to understand how best to conduct business.

Historical Perspective

One of the earliest of these theorists was Frederick Winslow Taylor. He started the Scientific Management movement, and he and his associates were the first people to study the work process scientifically. They studied how work was performed, and they looked at how this affected worker productivity. Taylor's philosophy focused on the belief that making people work as hard as they could was not as efficient as optimizing the way the work was done.
In 1909, Taylor published "The Principles of Scientific Management." In this, he proposed that by optimizing and simplifying jobs, productivity would increase. He also advanced the idea that workers and managers needed to cooperate with one another. This was very different from the way work was typically done in businesses beforehand. A factory manager at that time had very little contact with the workers, and he left them on their own to produce the necessary product. There was no standardization, and a worker's main motivation was often continued employment, so there was no incentive to work as quickly or as efficiently as possible.
Taylor believed that all workers were motivated by money, so he promoted the idea of "a fair day's pay for a fair day's work." In other words, if a worker didn't achieve enough in a day, he didn't deserve to be paid as much as another worker who was highly productive.
With a background in mechanical engineering, Taylor was very interested in efficiency. While advancing his career at a U.S. steel manufacturer, he designed workplace experiments to determine optimal performance levels. In one, he experimented with shovel design until he had a design that would allow workers to shovel for several hours straight. With bricklayers, he experimented with the various motions required and developed an efficient way to lay bricks. And he applied the scientific method to study the optimal way to do any type of workplace task. As such, he found that by calculating the time needed for the various elements of a task, he could develop the "best" way to complete that task.
These "time and motion" studies also led Taylor to conclude that certain people could work more efficiently than others. These were the people whom managers should seek to hire where possible. Therefore, selecting the right people for the job was another important part of workplace efficiency. Taking what he learned from these workplace experiments, Taylor developed four principles of scientific management. These principles are also known simply as "Taylorism".

Four Principles of Scientific Management

Taylor's four principles are as follows:
  1. Replace working by "rule of thumb," or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks.
  2. Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation, and train them to work at maximum efficiency.
  3. Monitor worker performance, and provide instructions and supervision to ensure that they're using the most efficient ways of working.
  4. Allocate the work between managers and workers so that the managers spend their time planning and training, allowing the workers to perform their tasks efficiently.

Critiques of Taylorism

Taylorism promotes the idea that there is "one right way" to do something. As such, it is at odds with current approaches such as MBO   (Management By Objectives),Continuous Improvement   initiatives, BPR   (Business Process Reengineering), and other tools like them. These promote individual responsibility, and seek to push decision making through all levels of the organization.
The idea here is that workers are given as much autonomy as practically possible, so that they can use the most appropriate approaches for the situation at hand. (Reflect here on your own experience – are you happier and more motivated when you're following tightly controlled procedures, or when you're working using your own judgment?) What's more, front line workers need to show this sort of flexibility in a rapidly-changing environment. Rigid, rules-driven organizations really struggle to adapt in these situations.
Teamwork is another area where pure Taylorism is in opposition to current practice. Essentially, Taylorism breaks tasks down into tiny steps, and focuses on how each person can do his or her specific series of steps best. Modern methodologies prefer to examine work systems more holistically in order to evaluate efficiency and maximize productivity. The extreme specialization that Taylorism promotes is contrary to modern ideals of how to provide a motivating and satisfying workplace.
Where Taylorism separates manual from mental work, modern productivity enhancement practices seek to incorporate worker's ideas, experience and knowledge into best practice. Scientific management in its pure form focuses too much on the mechanics, and fails to value the people side of work, whereby motivation and workplace satisfaction are key elements in an efficient and productive organization.

Key Points

Taylor's principles became widely practiced, and the resulting cooperation between workers and managers eventually developed into the teamwork we enjoy today. While Taylorism in a pure sense isn't practiced much today, scientific management did provide many significant contributions to the advancement of management practice. It introduced systematic selection and training procedures, it provided a way to study workplace efficiency, and it encouraged the idea of systematic organizational design
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_Taylor.htm

Principle # 2

"Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation, and train them to work at maximum efficiency"

Principle # 2 correlates significantly with the main reasoning of this blog regarding governance and its variable results relative to each side of the coin as predicated on Woodrow Wilson advocacy of the discipline of Public Administration re: to Quality of Life. See below:

"One reality of Jamaicas' political culture and  Politics in general is that Politicians and Electors (Voters) oftentimes construe, mix up/oblivious of the difference between Political Governance (Political Science) and Administrative Governance (Public Administration). Simple analogy; if your car needs repairs, you hire a mechanic, if you have dental issues you hire a dentist, if you are experiencing medical issues you visit a doctor and so on and so forth. If one subscribe to the above antecedent common sense logic, one should seek to hire/elect persons so appropriately qualified/trained, Why then are we surprised when politicians whom (if we are lucky) possess some formal training/education in areas other than Public Administration? (Public Administration Degree/Advance Degree-virtually non-existent). This reality will more likely lead to inadequate or mis-diagnosis of needs and  mal-aligned solutions, consequently rendering the citizens with a lesser quality of life"

Critiques of Taylorism

Taylorism promotes the idea that there is "one right way" to do something. As such, it is at odds with current approaches such as MBO   (Management By Objectives),Continuous Improvement   initiatives, BPR   (Business Process Reengineering), and other tools like them. These promote individual responsibility, and seek to push decision making through all levels of the organization.

Critiques of Scientific Management cites: Management by Objectives, Continuous Improvement and Business Process Improvement. what they do not tell you are these approaches to management all utilize smart tools which have their genesis in Scientific Management.


Here is the crux of my reasoning. 

How many Politicians and Minister of governmental offices ie
Chairman/Directors understand and use the following 'scientific smart tools in their management processes?


Interactive Smart Process Tools 










Results, positive or negative tracked using the above smart tools are: scalable, can be quantified and simultaneously fed into a feedback loop to generate new hypotheses, refined goals, develop new objectives etc etc.... This data/information is measurable and congruent with the continuous improvement process.


The above represents a few sample tools which is/are missing from our management of the peoples affairs. The type(s) of training and skills discussed in the context above are germane to theories and application of Public Administration. Admittedly, some of the sample tools may be referred to as socio-metric by nature; but none-the-less, they are more applicable within the Public Administration discipline rather then Political Science and represents a harmonious relationship between theory and practice. 


Despite the availability of the above 'we' keep repeating the negative cycle emanating from political governance and the data remains essentially the same, as the decision makers (with few exceptions here and there) keep guessing at the solutions. In essence, arbitrary chaos management for the last 50+ years.


The above represents a Readers Digest version of complex theories and processes. The devil lives in the details and this could grow 7ft tall in a Hong Kong minute. Patwa Translation:(Flieye ova yu ead fass-fass)



          Public Administration Governance Pyramid               Political Governance Upside Down Pyramid




                                               COIN
###########

Lets Perform a Hypothetical Test on this Governance Coin Theory


Consistent with the Coin theory reasoned in this blog, I provide two actual newspaper articles below  (Example # 1a and Example # 1b) reflective of political 'governance' under two different political administration.  You may use the following Likert Scale to measure your opinion.

 
After reading both examples, indicate a score using the scale below for political management/governance effectiveness 


Likert Scale:


-5__________-2,5____________0__________+2.5___________+5


Example # 1a

We want and deserve more

Published: Monday | December 7, 2009

Jamaica is ill-served by a public bureaucracy that has retreated from its responsibility to manage. The problem is compounded by politicians who believe not only that the job is theirs but that they are capable of doing it.
The result is abject failure, exemplified by the embarrassingly small economic growth since Independence, deepening poverty, high levels of crime, poor performance in education, a decrepit justice system, inadequate infrastructure as well as social and physical decay. There is, too, our intensely competitive and divisive political process that often breeds violence and has difficulty in fostering consensus.
While our politicians stumble around in management roles that were not designed for them and for which most have neither skill nor training, their core policy functions are poorly handled or left largely unattended.
The executive has become, at once, formulators and implementers of policy in a system that lacks real oversight or accountability. Parliament operates inefficiently. Constituency representation is often weak and, in some cases, 'outsourced' to, if not outright criminals, people who operate close to the margins.
These, of course, are not new problems. Nor are they limited to any specific party or administration. But Jamaicans are fed up. They want and deserve better. The environment is ripe for change.
Listening to the people
The transformation must start with our leaders engaging in a frank conversation with the people, listening to our ideas, being willing to act decisively for the good of the country. Small parliamentary majorities can't be held up as the reason for failing to do what is right; and should appropriate policies be predicated on their impact on the next election?
In other words, our call is for a leadership that is beyond declarations of integrity, but a readiness to respond to the hard tests when they come - such as extraditing accused criminals, whatever their status in a political constituency, or how strategic their support may be considered to a party.
Time to mount efforts
It requires, too, that politicians and their critical supporters stop exploiting the ignorance of portions of our population. It is also time for our leaders to mount credible efforts to dismantle political garrisons.
This restructuring must also include reform of the legislature. The Senate must no longer be used as a place to reward the hard-core party faithful or those who fail at the hustings. Its members should be bright people, allowing the Upper House to operate as a serious, deliberative chamber and from where governments can appoint key ministers.
Sweeping changes
The legislature is not only inefficient, but expensive to operate. We propose that the seats in the House of Represen-tatives be cut from 60 to 45, the size of the Cabinet radically reduced, and better use made of backbenchers in the legislative process.
For two decades, Jamaica has talked local-government reform but has achieved little. We should cut the number of parish councils and consolidate their operations.
Parliamentarians must be paid decently but their remuneration should be linked to performance and a system of accountability. We must also introduce state-financed political campaigns, with clear limits on what parties can spend.
At the bottom line, we insist on a political process that is prudent and responsible, offering adequate representation to its constituents. It should be so structured to attract the best talent and the confidence to hold itself accountable for performance.
A call to action!
Editorial series
Jamaicans have for decades complained about the state of our country - its poor economic performance, its poverty, its poor management, its crime, its violence. Many people have become fed up with the seeming inaction on the part of those we elect and the bureaucracy we pay to put things right.
Things cannot continue as they are; certainly not in these exceptional times. In this the second of a series of four editorials, The Gleaner is calling Jamaicans to action, to engage in a debate on the kind of country we want to live in, and to hold to account those who have abrogated their responsibility to manage, and to insist on a radical overhaul in the way we conduct our affairs. It can't continue!



Example 1b

Languishing Gov't projects irks PAAC


BY ALPHEA SAUNDERS Parliamentary reporter saundersa@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, January 09, 2015    Email A Friend!

(L-R) JACKSON... you allocate funds that are not going to be used and there are areas of national life that need funds that can’t get it. BARTLETT... implementation rate of projects makes a mockery of budgeting
MEMBERS of the House's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) were on Wednesday left perplexed on the matter of millions being allocated for projects each year, only for these to lag behind while scarce funds languish.
Government member Fitz Jackson argued that projects should be properly planned and adequate preparation made for their implementation before any allocation is made in the national budget.
"We have expressed ad nauseam the problem where, at the end of a financial year, the implementation is way below what was projected, and we beg and beseech, don't put the item in the budget unless sufficient preparation is made for implementation in the fiscal year that is before us. The danger with that is that you allocate funds that are not going to be used and there are areas of national life that need funds that can't get it. It doesn't allow for the optimal use of limited funds, in satisfying national demand," Jackson said.
Chairman of the PAAC, Edmund Bartlett, agreed that the implementation rate of projects earmarked in the budget each year is "abysmal", adding that, "it makes a mockery of budgeting when you put large amounts, when in truth and in fact the ability to implement is perhaps only half of that."
"It creates an expectation on the part of the public for outcome which is not practical," Bartlett added.
Bartlett said the technical teams across government ministries, agencies and departments must take full responsibility. "It is you who give undertakings to this house that you can deliver on the basis of the allocations that we approve," he remarked.
Principal director for the Climate Change Department, Albert Dailey -- who was in the hot seat -- sought to explain why halfway through the fiscal year only 20 per cent ($2.6 million) of the allotted $11 million had been spent on a major climate change project.
"Due to challenges in the negotiation process and finalising the funding arrangements, the agreement was not signed until August, and work did not start until September... Part of the work to be done is the contracting of personnel to conclude the preparation of this report. We have done the interviews, we have contracted the persons and we will expect to begin the disbursement of funds later this month," he said. The project missed its implementation date by three months.
However, Dailey gave an assurance that by March 31 some $8.4 million more will be expended.
But this did not appease Jackson, who pointed out that, "every time that this yellow book is tabled, we are saying to the country that in this period we are proposing to do these things, not that we would like to do these things."
The Third National Communication and the Second Biennial Report project are expected to facilitate activities to mainstream climate change issues into relevant social, and economic programmes. The country submitted the first and second communication reports to UNESCO in 2000 and 2011, respectively.
The Ministry of Water Land Environment and Climate Change was before the PAAC in a follow-up session to discuss its financials for the Climate Change division, the National Environment and Planning Agency, Real Estate Board and the Land Administration and Management Programme.
The committee will later this month hear submissions from the National Water Commission, another agency of the ministry, on the funding of its parish plans and rollout of projects.

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Read this blog from the top down and following or making your own inferences using my Coin Theory of administrative governance, rate the presumptions (on likert scale below) as reasoned by the Coin Theory and see if the negatives in the articles could be turned into positives using the scientific management methods provided.

Likert Scale:


-5__________-2,5____________0__________+2.5___________+5



If you would like to get more specific details of my reasoning and implementation of these methods into your business or organizational plan(s) link me at:

noeladmlnscience@gmail.com 

or 


phantomresearcher@yahoo.com