ARRANGEMENTS ARE reportedly underway for independent simultaneous reviews of the Caribbean Community Secretariat and other institutions of CARICOM.
Significantly, the decision for these arrangements were taken at last month’s summit of CARICOM Heads of Government in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in addition to their agreement for a special committee meeting this Tuesday of seven Community leaders in Grenada.
The committee of Community leaders will deal specifically with suggestions on how best to improve management of the CARICOM Secretariat, in the context of a new form of effective governance of the regional economic integration movement.
The outcome of the Grenada committee meeting will be addressed for action at a special summit of CARICOM Heads in Jamaica late next month.
So far as the proposed independent review on “rationalisation of institutions and the Secretariat of CARICOM” is concerned, this is expected to be a project for a few months duration, in order to obtain maximum possible inputs from various stakeholders.
The intention is to enable a better appreciation for the introduction of an envisaged new management structure for overall effective governance.
Depending on how soon the relevant review teams can be established, it may be useful to secure critical perspectives of existing operations and functions from current, as well as recent former senior technical and administrative employees of both the Secretariat in Guyana, as well as the other regional institutions across the Community that have been identified for scrutiny.
Truth is, these proposed reviews are overdue. What must be taken into consideration would be the recommendations in previous reports, particularly those submitted over the past decade.
In the case of the operations of the Community Secretariat, it would be appropriate for the particular review team to seek to benefit from the research and findings of mandated studies, such as the 2002 report by an ‘In-House Committee’ on ‘Restructuring of the Community Secretariat’, and based on proposals from a team co-chaired by Mr. Leonard Archer and Dr. Patrick Gomes.
On the wider issue of ‘regional governance’, it would be quite helpful also to revisit a most relevant analysis by Dr. Havelock Brewster in 2003, in the context of ‘The Rose Hall Declaration’ released by CARICOM leaders at their summit that same year in Jamaica.
Co-author (with Dr. Clive Thomas) of a pioneering work, ‘The Dynamics of West Indian Economic Integration’, Brewster has addressed the crucial issue of conflicts in CARICOM governments committing themselves to the creation of a single economic space with the CSME and, at the same time, offering constant “reaffirmation” as members of a “Community of Sovereign States…”
We therefore look forward to the results of the initiatives to be undertaken on “matured regional governance” and the related issue of simultaneous independent reviews of the operations and functions of the CARICOM Secretariat and various other institutions of our Community now in its 37th year.