It is a point that was made by this newspaper in the immediate aftermath of Mr Latibeaudiere's dismissal and, therefore, has our support. We wish, however, to inject a note of caution into the discourse and to warn against a stampede into action.
Which is why we welcome Prime Minister Bruce Golding's promise to engage the Opposition on the matter, as well as to resurrect a 15-year-old report on the issue by actuary Daisy Coke to help jump-start the discourse. Hopefully, this can set a platform for a discussion that is thoughtful and measured, calling on wide and varied technical information, devoid of emotion and hubris.
We make these points because of the context of Mr Latibeaudiere's exit from the central bank and the politically partisan flavour it has assumed.
Mr Latibeaudiere was fired, ostensibly because of a dispute over aspects of his employment contract, which Mr Golding claimed, variously, to have been unconscionable, em-barrassing, repugnant and unacceptable. Latibeaudiere, the Government says, was being paid, on an agreement signed in 2007, $38 million a year, of which $23 million was for rent and upkeep for living in his own home.
Of course, there are those who hold that while Mr Latibeaudiere's contract may have represented a matter of genuine concern, that it blew up now, two years into the life of the Golding administration, provided a convenient trigger for the governor's dismissal. By its action, this argument goes, the Government removed an awkward resister to its efforts to have interest rates fall more rapidly.
policy tensions
That there is this strongly held belief of policy tensions between Latibeaudiere and the administration is why we urge rigorous analyses of the proposals for changes to the structure of the Bank of Jamaica, and caution against decision driven by emotion. For instance, this newspaper has long championed the cause of the decoupling of the technical role as governor of the central bank from chairmanship of its board of directors - but with a proviso.
With regard to our proposal for a non-executive chairman of the BOJ, our concern here is primarily to enhance the oversight of internal management and to improve accountability, thereby limiting the potential for conflicts of interest.
monetary policy
However, we believe that while the governor of the central bank cannot be totally oblivious to the Government's broad policy objectives, the governor has to be relatively free to pursue monetary policy, with the aid of a formal committee mainly of his key technical staff. In other words, the current contretemps ought not to be an excuse for the merger of monetary and fiscal policies and indiscipline at the finance ministry.
Therefore, should Jamaica opt for a non-executive chairman of the BOJ, clear parameters and lines of demarcation have to be established between that role and the job of governor. The governor on monetary policy issues, in this regard, should, as chairman of the monetary policy committee, probably have to testify periodically before a parliamentary committee for his actions. Additionally, the minutes of the committee's deliberations should be published within a reasonable period after the sessions.