Unit set up to lead Jamaica job cuts and public sector changes

"We are going to have to rein in this sprawling, expensive apparatus that we call Government," the Prime Minister said.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, November 9, 2009 – A special team will go into operation a week from now in Jamaica to lead the government effort to cut jobs and otherwise rationalise the public service.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding says the permanent secretary in his office, Patricia Sinclair-McCalla, would give up her substantive position to take up the post of chief executive officer of the eight-member unit.

“We have established a unit which will go into operation on November 16, next Monday,” the Prime Minister said.

Under the rationalisation plan, government jobs will be lost as the Golding administration seeks to cut costs, and the public sector will be modernised to improve efficiency.

The effort will see some of the existing 200 government departments merged and others closed.

"We are going to have to rein in this sprawling, expensive apparatus that we call Government," the Prime Minister said.

"We will be driving that process out of the Cabinet Office and we're going to start rolling that out in about April of next year," he added. "It is going to take us about 18 months. That's the target I've given them."

He said the aim is to ease the burden on the country’s Budget so that borrowing is reduced.