MPs welcome grading system but caution against inaccuracies
MEMBERS OF Parliament (MPs) from the two main political parties have embraced an initiative by one civil society group that seeks to empower citizens to hold them accountable, but with an important caveat.
The first-of-its-kind ‘MP Tracker’ is an online portal created by Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP), with backing from the European Union.
With Jamaica having no official job descriptions for MPs, the initiative seeks to bridge the gap between citizens and their elected representatives by disseminating information, sourced from official government documents, that sheds light on the conduct and performance of MPs and some of the things required of them.
Citizens can visit the portal to find out how often their MPs attend Parliament, whether they are compliant with Jamaica’s anti-corruption law, and whether they hold consultations with residents to decide on the projects that are to be funded from the Constituency Development Fund. JAMP also uses the data to grade MPs.
“MP Tracker is a clinical, fact-based, evidence-based approach to try and determine what is your job and how well you are doing it,” explained Jeanette Calder, executive director of JAMP.
“You cannot hold somebody to account unless they have a job description and terms of reference. Neither can that individual do their best job if they don’t know what is required of them,” she said.
The initiative had a rocky introduction last week when a number of MPs questioned the methodology used to arrive at the scores that were assigned to them, forcing the pro-accountability group to issue a public apology and temporarily close the website. It is expected to be back up tomorrow.
Phillip Paulwell, the long-time MP for Kingston Eastern and Port Royal, and St Andrew West Rural’s Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn welcomed the latest tool to the accountability landscape, but insisted that care must be taken to ensure the accuracy of the data provided.
Cuthbert-Flynn questioned the methodology used to determine the grades assigned to MPs, disclosing that, since the publication of her score by JAMP, she has been inundated with calls from constituents.
“Instantly, after the poll came up, … I got phone calls from my constituents. I think that more Jamaicans want more transparency, want that accountability from their members of parliament. We have gotten a bad rap over the years in terms of who we are and what we stand for,” said the Olympian-turned-politician.
“So, anything when it comes to trying to show more accountability is always a good thing. However, the persons doing it must get it right the first time, because then your credibility can be ruined,” she continued.
With less than three weeks before the next general election, Paulwell believes the MP Tracker would be a good tool for voters to help them decide whether to support their incumbent parliamentarians.
Further, he expressed the view that it will force elected representatives to up their game or, at the very least, maintain a consistently good performance.
“But you have to make sure you are accurate,” he insisted.
Amid criticisms about the methodology for its grading system, Calder said a critical issue for JAMP is to ensure that all elements of subjectivity are omitted and “we base our assessment on objective data”.
“Attendance in the House [of Representatives] is crucial to getting the job done. Are you there? Are you showing up? That is a matter of parliamentary records, not our view,” she said, citing one example.
“The matter of whether you are meeting with your constituents to discuss how the $20 million [allocated to MPs] each year will be spent in the constituency and whether you are meeting with them, and give account as to how it was spent, is a government policy,” she added, disclosing that the source of this information is the Constituency Development Unit at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Data about whether MPs are complying with the Integrity Commission Act, Calder said, is a valuable tool for citizens. MPs and other public officials are required, each year, to file a statutory declaration of their income, assets and liabilities.
“If I see that my MP has committed an offence [under this act] four out of the last five years, then the next meeting I have with him I can have a conversation. Citizens could not have that conversation before, because the information was simply not provided,” she noted.
“There are some MPs who have been out of compliance every single year, for different offences, but every single year. Now, if I am concerned about corruption, then I am going to be concerned about this member of parliament.”
Calder acknowledged that some MPs are doing more than what the MP tracker is currently capturing, but made it clear that such efforts will not be taken into consideration “if these activities cannot be assessed subjectively and if we cannot find government reports that can provide an objective review”.
The JAMP executive director wants the initiative to get the conversation going on the issue of job descriptions for MPs.
In the lead-up to the 2016 polls, then Opposition Leader Andrew Holness promised that a Government led by him would introduce job descriptions for Cabinet ministers. Calder said, over the last four years, she was very interested to see the buildout of that conversation.
“It did not happen and it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. So the question always is what can we do as citizens to move the process that we want along further. We don’t have to wait on the prime minister. A conversation is a two-way thing, so any of us can begin the conversation,” she said.
“In order to start a conversation that should have begun in 1962, we have to ask ourselves, as citizens, how can we start it? Because it can begin with them (MPs), but it can also begin with us.”
The former technocrat in the housing ministry said the initiative was motivated by the numerous “governance challenges” she witnessed.
“I wanted to see improvement in public goods and services and wanted to shed some more light on the very important position called member of parliament.”