Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that new Senate appointee Audrey Marks will focus on the reformation of government bureaucracy and digital transformation, two key areas that will help drive the national development agenda of Jamaica.

Marks will serve as minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for efficiency, innovation, and digital transformation.

“This responsibility will entail cultivating a government bureaucracy that is agile, that is growth-oriented, and that is innovation-driven. One that actively enables entrepreneurship, fosters innovation, and accelerates the implementation of major projects as a critical catalyst for our national pivot to growth,” Holness said during the swearing-in ceremony on Monday of Marks and Delano Seiveright as ministers.

Seiveright is the new minister of state in the Ministry of Tourism.

Marks was most recently Jamaica’s ambassador to the US.

Holness underscored that there is no doubt that the stringent fiscal policies implemented by the government to control excessive government spending have been a success. However, he said there are challenges that need to be addressed.

“They have reduced public debt, restored macroeconomic stability, and strengthened accountability. However, the very layers of controls—checks and balances that helped us rein in wasteful spending—have now created a new challenge, one that slows down essential approvals, delays critical infrastructure projects, and stifles economic growth.

“Minister Marks will have responsibility for streamlining processes for efficiency and economic development (SPEED) and appoint an advisory team of public sector stakeholders as she undertakes a comprehensive review of Jamaica’s governance arrangement systems and processes and implements targeted reforms that will eliminate inefficiencies, reduce bureaucratic delays, and enhance the ease, or rather the speed, of doing business,” Holness added.

However, the prime minister expressed that establishing a new focus in the Office of the Prime Minister is something that is critical to relieve the pain points of citizens and increase the pace of growth. “It is also a signal that the government is listening, that the government cares enough to restructure its own bureaucracy, its own operations, and its own business processes to make life easier for the average citizen.”

He continued: “Bureaucracy should not be looked upon as a government attempt to pass blame or for some political purpose. No, it is absolutely important that the government continually reviews the public bureaucracy because by nature it is there to serve itself, and governments have to ensure that the bureaucracy serves the people; that’s the reality, so this government has appointed a minister to ensure that the bureaucracy is serving the people.”

Holness further highlighted that bureaucracy is also a part of the cost of living, so easing the cost of living is not just managing prices to ensure that Jamaica has a stable inflationary environment, but it is also treating some of the issues that cause citizens to spend unnecessarily, which is what SPEED is designed to do.

“There’s another element of SPEED that is to ensure that critical national projects don’t end up dying on the altar of the bureaucracy, which has happened so many times… We have to change that. The people elected us to change that, and I’m saying to the people of Jamaica, we are going to change that,” he said.

Holness also noted that projects that can transform Jamaica and are in the national interest must be moved expeditiously. “Minister Marks’ mandate will include reform of public investment and procurement processes to identify and eliminate unnecessary delays while maintaining transparency and accountability and to reform development approval and permitting processes to implement and streamline and simplify approval requirements to prevent major investments from being stalled in administrative limbo,” he continued.

Marks will also leverage technology for transparency and efficiency, including the use of digital platforms to modernise applications, approvals, and monitoring processes and promote data sharing and automation across government agencies through reduced manual processing times and enhanced service delivery.

The second area of focus under Mark’s portfolio is digital transformation, previously held by Minister of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information Dana Morris Dixon.

“The new national identification system has gone live. We are improving connectivity with our national broadband project and GovNet. eGov Jamaica will soon be transitioning to the National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Authority, and we have the report and recommendations from the national AI task force.

“The government is taking AI seriously; much of the bureaucracy that we experience can easily be replaced by AI. But there is much more that we need to do to accelerate the pace of Jamaica’s transition to become a digital society. We need to accelerate the digitisation of government processes so that citizens are able to access more government services online in the comfort of their homes so that there is no need to worry about transportation and long lines,” Holness added.