– Critical criteria for Carrington’s successor, new governance arrangements
FOUR MONTHS have elapsed since the stern exchanges at the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in Jamaica last July that decided to bring an end to the 18-year service of Secretary-General Carrington. No date was set for the Secretary-General to vacate office.
However, rather than be ‘run-out’, as the saying goes, the wise and astute batsman that Carrington is, saw the fading light and announced, exact to the day one month later on Wednesday 4 August, that he would end his innings on December 31, 2010.
A range of comments have been noted on the record of this long-serving and dedicated regional and international public servant, and need not be addressed in this contribution on this occasion.
Rather, it seems reasonable to pursue how the Search Committee has fared in identifying prospective candidates, with now less than a month before the incumbent vacates office, and ahead of next February’s Inter-Sessional Meeting of Community leaders in Grenada.
As I have previously argued, CARICOM Heads will do well not to be preoccupied with filling a ‘vacancy’, but with burying the moribund management culture of a ‘navel-gazing’ boys’ club operation in Georgetown.

How wide and transparent the process?

Given the disturbing silence and lack of public information on the criteria, experience and overall background and professional qualities expected to guide the choice of suitable candidates, one would hope that a sufficiently transparent and objective process would be made known, at some stage, to the Caribbean public.
Such an approach would at least be a clear indication that the regional integration movement intends to make a radical departure from the hitherto secretive, cliquish manner in which appointments of executive management in CARICOM have been made.
For instance, it is still to be ascertained whether the vacancy of the post of Secretary-General was announced and advertised. This would allow, that even if persons are not interested the taxpayers of CARICOM and donors also, who no doubt share if not the entire costs, a sizeable portion, would have an inkling of the kind of person that is expected to undertake the heavy responsibility of being ‘Chief Administrative Officer’ of the CARICOM Secretariat.
This is reasonable from a perspective of the right to information on how public funds are expended in filling public posts.
More importantly, major regional and international organisations seeking to draw on the widest possible pool of talent for critical posts do not rely merely on a few learned and bright persons to find the most suitable.
A public announcement with clearly defined criteria and qualities would have complemented the ‘know-how’ and contacts of the Search Committee however ‘bright and scholarly’ the UWI-based academics and others, who compose the current ‘search team’. Knowing the chairperson’s managerial ‘savvy’ and good reputation for sound judgment, one can remain confident that despite limitations of the process, the outcome could be useful.

Beyond a candidacy of gender and geographical balance?

In true Caribbean style, there is much on the rumour-mill that four or five candidates are already on a short-list. These include an internal candidate regarded as having two ‘advantages’. First, that of ‘insider’ experience, and secondly, from a country which never held the top post. Another candidate, nominated by her Head of Government at the Special Meeting of CARICOM Heads in New York on September 24 this year, is said to be “highly-considered.”
Having served previously in Executive Management, she also shares the “insider’s advantage” to “hit the ground running.” Moreover, it is said that no female has ever been Secretary-General. Now, then, is time to ensure ‘gender equality’, so the lobbying goes.
With the deepest respect to the persons involved, who in their own right have sound credentials and posses many likeable traits, they just don’t fit the bill. If CARICOM intends to undertake the kind of thorough overhaul and root and branch managerial reform so desperately needed, they may be good, but are far off the mark in the current crisis.
Deprived of an executive role in decision-making and as an initiator of proposals, the Secretary-General must certainly possess acute negotiating experience and skills, be familiar with regional and international currents of thought affecting integration movements, well grounded in the political realities of the CARICOM Member States, with a proven track-record of successfully leading a multi-disciplinary team.
These are the basic qualities for the incoming Secretary-General, and  she/he must be results-oriented and keen to ensure value for money in running the affairs of CARICOM on the hard-earned taxes of our citizens not primarily dependent on donor assistance.
As Heads of Government receive proposals from the Search Committee, they must go beyond filling a vacant post, and unequivocally consider the fundamental need for the entire executive layer in the Secretariat to be replaced.
A new team is necessary for the key and critical posts of Deputy Secretary-General, Chief -of-Staff and Assistant Secretaries-General for Functional Cooperation and External Relations. The latter two have incumbents who are due to retire.
With the Independent Review of CARICOM Institutions and Secretariat now underway, one would expect that clear guidelines shall be available to ensure the overhaul and restructuring of CARICOM would give birth to a modern, relevant and technologically capable organisation, which our region so badly needs and rightly deserves. (++Pascal, a Caribbean national, is very experienced in the history and functioning of CARICOM, and is an occasional contributor to this newspaper)