DARCY CONDEMN OPPOSITION CRITICISMS ON BSER

By Andrew Fanasia Jr.

The final costing of the Government’s proposed Bureau for Social and Economic Reforms (BSER) will ultimately be determined by the final structure and status which the NCRA Government decides the Bureau should take.

“And what the NCRA Government will decide should be the primary role and functions of the Bureau; will eventually provide the final shape of the Bureau’s manpower requirements and structure as well as its status.” This is according to the Permanent Secretary - Special Duties; responsible for Reforms and Projects, Luma Darcy.

To get to the final outcome and the final product of this important NCRA Government’s policy initiative, will take a lot of prior and inclusive consultations, planning, and internal discussions which the NCRA Government has already initiated, Mr. Darcy said.

Mr. Darcy made these clarifications in response to criticisms which the Opposition Leader Steve Abana made in the media last week, based on a document which the local media has claimed to be a budget submission seeking SBD$4.8 Million for the staff of the proposed Bureau for Social and Economic Reforms.

He said the document which the Opposition Leader Mr. Abana was referring to, was just one of a range of documents which are basically internal NCRA Government discussion papers on the proposal.

Mr. Darcy also said that if the Government eventually established the Bureau, the level of remunerations which the senior staff of the Bureau will have; will depend on qualifications and work experience; but this will also be ultimately determined by the status and role of the Bureau as determined by the NCRA Government.

“That will in turn, determine what their required qualifications and work experience, and job descriptions will be. Their job descriptions will ultimately determine their level of remunerations and it will be there and then that we would decide whether or not the remunerations are justified by their job descriptions. While it is good to have Opposition input in this matter, perhaps last week’s criticisms of the Bureau by the Opposition is somewhat premature,” Mr. Darcy said.

The Director of the Policy and Evaluation Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office and former MP for West New Georgia and Vona Vona, Peter Boyers, has also spoken out in support of giving the NCRA Government the opportunity to fully explore the concept with the view to eventually adopting the proposal to establish the Bureau.

Mr. Boyers, also a former Finance and Economic Planning and Aid Coordination Minister, believes that there is a need to have a centralized process to provide an overall coordination mechanism for the executive government.

“Given my own experience, I believe it is timely for the NCRA Government to review our long standing assumption that government ministries are capable of effectively coordinating their activities relating to government social and economic reforms, in situations where there are cross-cutting issues that require the coordinated involvement of more than one ministry in order to get things moving and achieve outcomes in a timely manner,” Mr. Boyers says.

Mr. Boyers said that Mr. Abana’s concern about cost is premature and if the Opposition is so concerned about political appointees and the cost to tax payers, the Opposition must bear in mind that political appointees recruited under the Sogavare and Sikua led governments cost tax payers between SBD$2.5 to SBD$4.5 Million.

“As a matter of fact, some of the political appointees now serving under the current NCRA Government’s political unit in the Office of the Prime Minister were first recruited by the Sogavare and Sikua led Governments.