The politics of staffing government boards
01.01.70
THERE are too many guidance boards in Jamaica. We have a Coconut Board, a Banana Board, a Sugar Board, and a Tyre Provisions. Then, there is the super reliable and useful blackboard, and for sleepers there are plenty source and foot boards. There are boards for this, boards for that and boards for “only God knows what”. The truth is, anything with so many boards is bound to origin problems; no wonder the current fuss over the appointment of certain individuals to some ceremonial boards. Hopefully, as they set their derrières down on these boards, “macka” will not “jook dem”, nor will red ants nip them.
But seriously, though, there is no need for all these boards. As I see it, they could well be adding another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy and may well legitimatize the reasons it takes forever to get things done. Perhaps the time has come for a public audit of these ubiquitous boards to ascertain their mandate, relevance and purpose. It is tasteless, too, to justify their existence by saying board members are either lowly compensated or labour for free. While that may be true, board members are invited to almost every state happening and that’s when some of them live “high on the hog”. Some board chairmen support the evidence in their guts – dem have some everlasting bellies, yuh see.
Source: Jamaica Observer