On Tuesday of this week I visited a Government Department at the Waterfront to drop off a document. I approached a young lady to hand deliver the document, only to be greeted with the most profound expression of impertinence. This young woman was probably younger than my daughter, and I froze for a while in complete shock. It was only because I am not linguistically challenged and more so constrained by the love of Christ, that my response was not filled with a volcanic explosion of expletives.
There is a principle of Physics called inertia, and if you understand that principle, it is the key to reinventing government within St. Lucia. Inertia is defined as followed:
‘A property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force ‘
If an object is at rest it will remain at rest until an external force acts upon it. No object can just start to move on its own. However if you apply any force upon it, it will begin to move.
Unless an external force is applied nothing will change in the way government functions in St. Lucia. The impertinence, the nice word for ‘ dam rudeness” of this young woman, could only happen in an environment where there is no inertia at the top for change.
I worked in the private sector before my entry into the public service in St. Lucia, and it was the application of those private sector experiences that brought a level of change. It was the law of inertia in effect. I can boldly say that in those days the Ministry of Communications Works & Transport was run more efficiently that some private sector construction companies. We had a strong team with the likes of Gregory St Helene as Permanent Secretary, followed by Johnson Cenac with Cletus Springer, Lynden Long, all who understood that change starts with the creation of inertia.
For those who worked in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, they experienced Ausbert’s work ethic, in which he started at 7.00 am every morning. Inertia was created at the top and it caused the movement of an entire government department.
You speak with investors coming into to St. Lucia and there is a level of frustration that they experience. The improvement in the ranking of “ Ease of Doing Business’’ is more than manipulating a metric developed by the World Bank. We have to create an investment climate, by changing a ‘government culture’ . The culture change will only come when those that are leading the government departments create the inertia.
I have no issue with the infusion of professionals within the Public Service, but that investment must create inertia and the resultant culture change. My benchmark for effectiveness is not what they personally have achieved, but the inertia for change they have created.
The economic situation that we are facing in the OECS is an excellent opportunity to create that culture change, and if we succeed then we would have created the platform for continued economic growth.
Maybe, we need to have special Physics classes for the senior civil servants and fully explain the principle of inertia.
JOHN PETERS – studied Physics up to ‘ A’ Level , inertia was a topic.