GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY — A BUSINESS ANALOGY
The Premier’s Economic Recovery Team (PERT) report clearly identified the problem with Newfoundland and Labrador’s fiscal situation as that of faulty governance, and then concentrated most of its work on the resulting symptoms.
It proceeded to give a textbook business solution to those symptoms, without really addressing the province’s somewhat unique governance problems.
We need a government structure that manages our wealth wisely and spends (not invests) our revenues efficiently.
Social democracies come close to that; right-wing capitalist regimes fail miserably.
A business solution to a governance problem just gives more of the same, but we do need some business principles in the execution of government, especially accountability and transparency by management (government) to ownership (citizens).
Where is the guarantee (at least probably assurance) that when we dig ourselves out of this hole, we will not be into another? Remember, it was only a few years back we were there! It can only come from government changes.
Perhaps some real thinking outside the box?
Newfoundland and Labrador has been noted in the past by political scientists as never really having a functioning democracy. During the last election, the politicians themselves were throwing around banana republic references.
It can start with real transparency.
Here is a unique suggestion which covers items one and two of the four strategic foci suggested on page six of the report.
A registry of all government transactions which involves government finances and assets is maintained. These documents already exist, and new ones are created daily. The documents in question are the final, legal, binding documents which commit the citizens (essentially owners in a business sense) to some action or asset transfer. It would include such things as salaries, contracts, licences and asset transfers.
This registry would be online and searchable by the public. No database design is involved since the complete document is registered. The document must be complete. This is the instrument which will be put before the courts and oblige citizens to live up to its contents. Existing search engines can easily handle the document searches. Professionals, with appropriate accountability, within the public service would be responsible and accountable for maintaining the registry. Ideally the transactions are illegal until registered.
If the government feels that a given document should not be available publicly, then the onus would be on the government to make application to keep it confidential. The adjudication of the application can be handled by the judiciary or some form of citizen representation.