Gov’t has an implementation problem — Smith

Deputy Premier and Labour Minister Lorna Smith

Deputy Premier and Labour Minister, Lorna Smith, said she believes the government has an urgent problem on its hands with executing its mandate and challenged fellow government members to help fix it.

Smith gave that indication after the usual question-and-answer segment of the House of Assembly’s (HOA) proceedings recently.

She said: “I cannot stand here without saying that I listened attentively to the answers to the questions that were posed, and I will be the first to say and to admit that this government seems to have an implementation problem that we – seven of us – have to fix and fix it very quickly in the interest of the people of this territory.”

Over the last few years, the government has been repeatedly criticised for not meeting some of the basic expectations of residents, especially in areas such as infrastructure, healthcare and education.

There have also been significant challenges in other areas such as social welfare, transparency and accountability — issues brought to the fore during the Commission of Inquiry (COI) process.

Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has promised fixes for some of the challenges that his government faces but urged patience while noting that these fixes need to be strategic and systematic and not cosmetic as was done in the past.

The government introduced a National Sustainable Development Plan which was passed in the HOA last year and in his budget speech last December, the Premier said the government has to plan and be deliberate in its strategy if it wants to achieve progress and sustainable development.

Premier Wheatley noted at the time that his government would soon appoint a Director of Policy, who he said would be responsible for helping to implement the National Sustainable Development Plan and to map it to specific budgets.

He pointed out that the political directorate will then be held responsible for discussions on what will be addressed in each successive year.

“Departments will never be completely satisfied. Certainly, the Opposition won’t be satisfied. That’s not their job to be satisfied,” the Premier argued. “But certainly we have to take a responsible approach to how we budget, how we allocate resources, and then once we’ve passed the budget, we also have to make sure that the machine is well oiled and we’re able to execute based on what it is we have allocated money to do.”

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