I sat down this evening listening to what can only be called a ‘dog fight’, that is the speeches in Parliament regarding the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority Bill (NaRRA).

Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton was right – Jamaica is a low-trust society, especially when it comes to government. Where he misses the point is this.

Of course, we live in a low-trust society, especially of government. Stop stating the obvious. The question that warrants an answer is why Jamaica is a low-trust society, especially when it comes to government.

 It is because scandals, ‘missing’ money, and getting kickbacks on the side are frequent government occurrences. Angela Brown Burke tried to list some of the JLP scandals, but let us be honest, the PNP has their own list to contend with. So, yes, Jamaica is a low-trust society because the government has acted in a manner to cause the erosion of trust.

Jamaica is also a low-trust society because once the scandal, ‘missing’ money, and kickbacks are discovered, no one is ever punished. Ruel Reid is the only one of recent memory who has been charged with government malfeasance.  He was charged in 2019, and there is still no resolution. Mark Zuckerberg coined the phrase ‘move fast and break things’. You can do that in the private sector. You cannot do that with public money.

In conclusion, the lack of trust issue that no one is talking about is the amount of money we are dealing with. This is the largest ‘pile of cash’ that Jamaica has had the ability to spend for one purpose. The bottom line is that no one trusts anyone to administer the money. If I could be so bold, every citizen of Jamaica expects parliamentarians to get rich because of the NaRRA bill – whether from the fund itself, whether from the granting of contracts to friends, kickbacks, funnelling of public funds etc, etc, etc.

If the public does not trust you, Parliament of Jamaica, you honestly have no one but yourself to blame.

So when you put forward a bill which concentrates power in a single person, you are almost silly for thinking that people will think you are Mother Theresa and allocate the funds honestly.

Let us also acknowledge that we are not the first country to face such a situation, notably Cayman and the Bahamas. Why is the government seeking to reinvent the wheel when you have a plethora of wheels, some successful, some not, to choose from? Pick the best, cut and paste, and let us get a move on. Stop trying to create the bill that you want, and create a bill that picks the best of those that have been done before.

During the hurricane, the government realised when it was out of its depth and brought in the experts. It is time to do that again.