Speech
Andrew Holness  ·  2026-09-10 18:29

We Will Create a Bureaucratic System That Prioritizes Efficiency While Maintaining Accountability

We have too often treated speed and accountability as though they were mutually exclusive. They are not. We can move quickly and still follow rules. We can demand results and still insist on transparency. We can empower people to make decisions while holding them accountable for those decisions. Jamaicans should not be afraid of our own capacity to execute. And I I must say this, for my few years in government, I have detected almost I mean, it's a fear, but a lack of belief that we can build big things and build them quickly. The the bureaucracies uh almost unsure of itself to take on large projects. We hope that with with NARA, we will also have a mindset shift. Because it's really a function of how we see ourselves as a small island or a small country. And we need to shift away from that. We need our public sector, our private sector to shift away from seeing ourselves in this light and to start to see ourselves as a civilization of people who can build great things and build them quickly. We cannot accept the idea that if something is done quickly, it must have been done improperly or that the only evidence of good administration is a long process. By the way, that is a culture that is now set in our public bureaucracy. Efficiency matters, and I keep saying that the greatest resource is efficiency. Efficiency is a resource. Time matters. Every month of unnecessary delay will cost the families who are waiting on their houses. And we have live examples of that, Minister Montague, where we have houses that have been totally destroyed in some of the western parishes that were impacted. And uh uh maybe about 6 weeks after the hurricane, we made some commitments that we would purchase um what we call modular semi-permanent housing solutions. And now we are almost a year past the the event, and we are now just being able to sign contracts and starting to deliver the houses. Now, the process does not take into consideration the suffering of the families there who are waiting for those houses, who are still some of them sleeping outside. And you know what? No matter what I say here today, it is not an excuse for them. It doesn't give them any comfort. But no one wants to go to Parliament and face the PAAC that will say, "You did not follow procedure." Or get a report from the Auditor General that writes you up. No public servant wants that smear against their name. And so they're not going to be moving any faster than what the process allows them to. But the people are still there waiting, and that's the reality. That's the reality. I'm not satisfied. I I'm you know, I I've made it very clear. I'm not satisfied with the pace at which we have been able to deliver. But no one wants to be called up and have a bad report from the PAAC. So, what do we need to do? We need to comply and move faster. And whose job it is to review the process and make the changes where necessary falls to the government, myself, the cabinet. So, when we make those changes, there will be another round of howling and complaining, but we're past that now. We understand the direction that we must be moving in. We want to be clear, however, that speed without accountability is equally unacceptable.