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Reason to rejoice

Jan 21,2017 - Last updated at Jan 21,2017

I am one of the millions of Jordanians who was overwhelmed with joy upon hearing His Majesty King Abdullah’s call on the government to start trimming the cost of its operations, including by cutting down on high government salaries, and reducing the frequency and cost of delegations.

In other words, the King wants the government to tighten its belt.

The people want this done expeditiously.

To help the government become more cost effective there is need of a judicious probe by a team of experts who decide where savings can be made without impeding or interfering with the normal functioning of the government.

What comes immediately to mind is the number of bureaucracies and departments that were created over the past few years without considering their cost, as if the national budget were without limit.

To start with, why in the world does the country need the Economic and Social Council?

It is a relatively huge bureaucracy and I doubt that anybody can argue persuasively that its establishment has made a real difference to the functioning of the government.

The same goes for the Constitutional Court.

I know that it has become “fashionable” to establish such a high judiciary entity, but when even the US has delegated this highly important judicial function to its Supreme Court, which continues to have a double jurisdiction over constitutional and non-constitutional issues, why cannot Jordan delegate the mandate of the Constitutional Court to the Court of Cassation or the High Court of Justice and save hundreds of thousands of dinars?

The international call for a judicial body to examine constitutional issues does not necessarily mean the creation of another court when existing high courts can do just as well.

There must be other examples of how eliminating bureaucracies can be done easily without disturbing the normal functioning of the government.

Most ministries are literally flooded with employees, with some working hard and others just sitting around idle.

There is urgent need to examine in depth the needs of various ministries and departments, and this can be done by the proposed team of experts.

Most ministries can easily function just as well if not better with much less manpower.

The anti-corruption agency and the National Centre for Human Rights can do also just as well with much fewer employees.

Then we have the problem associated with inflated salaries for high officials, including MPs, most of whom have government wages from other previous positions.

Bloated governmental agencies or institutions are counterproductive and cost the government a great deal.

A 10 per cent reduction of all high salaries can be immediately endorsed.

It has been reported that some retirees earn as much as JD12,000 or even more a month.

What in the world would justify such a high retirement income, especially when the recipients earn wages from other sources?

It seems so unfair that many Jordanians still live below the poverty line or earn wages below the sub-standard minimum wage while some earn 20 or 30 times as much monthly.

People reject this unfair treatment that has financial implications for the government coffers.

 

No wonder most of the population rejoiced when the King talked about these concerns last week.

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