Government’s plan to create new state enterprises
and expand the scope of existing ones is one that overlooks
new realities that might work more efficiently.
The Prime Minister, it would seem, is unhappy with the pace
of execution of his visions for 2020 and wants a parallel
structure created, charged with the execution of projects
that are dragging their way through the bureaucracy.
At least one hopes so. That’s the most positive spin
possible on a plan that would, at least in the short-term,
lead to a government that would concentrate on bulking up
its bureaucratic biceps to benchpress its projects to completion.
But the creation of state enterprises hasn’t been only
about completing projects or the creation of lumbering acronyms.
It has also been a story riddled with governmental interference,
poorly-defined goals and sub-par results.
In an era in which the value of the private sector as a
partner in realising state goals is being embraced worldwide,
our government seems content to pursue a retrograde step
in expanding a system that has worked only fitfully in the
past.
Junior Finance Minister Christine Sahadeo has high hopes
and big plans for these new state institutions, promising
that they would have a limited timeline and scope and would
focus on specific projects. There was even a promise that
shrinkage of unnecessary state agencies would be on the
agenda eventually.
But the history of state enterprise in T&T has not been
characterised by reduction. The first step in reducing governmental
involvement in unnecessary expansion into non-core activities
is to avoid creating them in the first place.
The government, notes president of the T&T Chamber of
Commerce, Christian Mouttet, has a serious role and responsibility
to its own systems, noting the massive failures in health
care and infrastructure. According to Mouttet, “the
private sector has demonstrated that it is far more capable
of carrying out any type of project the Government may have
to execute, and the chamber’s position has always been
that Government divest.”
An even more compelling argument against the formation of
these new state agencies came from Dr Dhanyshar Mahabir,
who noted that “as off-Budget items, it could therefore
be used by Government to engage in a host and slew of unproductive
activities which can cause public debt to rise.”
Clearly, these are good reasons for the Government to review
this course of action and reconsider how their goals might
be better achieved. What the Government seems to want are
nimble, results-focused teams who will drive their projects
to completion.
What they are likely to get from expanded state agencies
is, ultimately, more of what they already have now, and
all the plans and hopes articulated in these early stages
will be tamped down to fit the channels and courses through
which state enterprises come to be moulded.
Many existing state enterprises were created at least partly
because the private sector of 50 years ago wasn’t ready
to handle the massive projects that were part of defining
Trinidad and Tobago’s modern economy. That’s no
longer the case.
From the utility sector through to oil and gas industry,
local entrepreneurs have, either on their own or with global
partners, demonstrated that they are capable of managing
efficiently and profitably the kind of large-scale projects
that once were the exclusive domain of the state enterprise.
To achieve its goals for 2020, the Government must begin
to think differently about the way it does business. Perpetuating
a system that hasn’t worked in the public interest
cannot be part of any forward thinking vision.
In reconsidering their approach to achieving their goals
while fixing their eyes on 2020, the Government might be
well served by taking a second look at the right here, right
now, by engaging in mutually beneficial partnerships with
a private sector that’s ready to do the work.
