Dear Editor,
Gordon "Butch” Stewart is certainly deserving of high praise for steadfastly reminding the Government of the urgent need to free up the red tape that is continuing to strangle productive business possibilities in this country.
Indeed urgent attention is needed to clear the massive bureaucracy that continues to thwart the establishment of export expansion needed to move forward.
As much as 20 years ago, I composed the following limerick:
"The Income Tax building is round,
From the top right down to the ground.
Through reams of red tape,
They came up with this shape,
Better circles to send you around."
But the circles didn't end there! They extended outwards and run into wider and wider circles. They continue to permeate every government agency, and are further weakened by the appointment of unqualified political favourites.
In 1975, my late husband, Claude, and I moved Gauron Food Products from Kingston to the JIDC factory complex at Boundbook, Port Antonio. At the time, we employed over 200 workers. In addition, Claude called on his factory contacts overseas and was able to persuade American and Korean companies to fill the factory space still available. Then, Port Antonio produced gloves, slippers, hand luggage, browning, vodka, a variety of sauces, uniforms, syrups, pumpkin ketchup, and other items for Kingston and overseas labels, and also supported a coupon-sorting business for US supermarkets. At one time the complex supported over 700 workers in five separate operations, four of them exportonly and employed mostly women.
When Gauron Food Products finally capitulated in 2004, it manufactured only browning, had 22 workers fully employed, and was paying $60,000 per month to the Factories Corporation of Jamaica for a leaking zinc-roofed building.
Today the complex lies in ruins; deserted except for a few crabs and egrets and one small section that has been rented to a retail establishment. It had survived the 70s, but the increasing red tape of the 80s and 90s took its heaviest toll.
Raw supplies were expensive and scarce. Many had to come through layers of red tape to get to us. Utilities were uncertain, at best. In the end there was nothing to do but pay off the workers and dispose of whatever equipment remained. The vibrant businesses were simply strangled by the multiple layers of bureaucracy and unchecked “bandooloo and samfie-ism”.
We need to do a lot of thinking and unravelling if we want save the businesses we have left.
Speaking to Minister Anthony Hylton the other day, I suggested that there should be some serious house-cleaning before trying to bring in further investors. He agreed but said the matter was so complex that it would take "much more dialogue".
Have we got time for this?
Marguerite Gauron
hmgauron@gmail.com
Gordon "Butch” Stewart is certainly deserving of high praise for steadfastly reminding the Government of the urgent need to free up the red tape that is continuing to strangle productive business possibilities in this country.
Indeed urgent attention is needed to clear the massive bureaucracy that continues to thwart the establishment of export expansion needed to move forward.
As much as 20 years ago, I composed the following limerick:
"The Income Tax building is round,
From the top right down to the ground.
Through reams of red tape,
They came up with this shape,
Better circles to send you around."
But the circles didn't end there! They extended outwards and run into wider and wider circles. They continue to permeate every government agency, and are further weakened by the appointment of unqualified political favourites.
In 1975, my late husband, Claude, and I moved Gauron Food Products from Kingston to the JIDC factory complex at Boundbook, Port Antonio. At the time, we employed over 200 workers. In addition, Claude called on his factory contacts overseas and was able to persuade American and Korean companies to fill the factory space still available. Then, Port Antonio produced gloves, slippers, hand luggage, browning, vodka, a variety of sauces, uniforms, syrups, pumpkin ketchup, and other items for Kingston and overseas labels, and also supported a coupon-sorting business for US supermarkets. At one time the complex supported over 700 workers in five separate operations, four of them exportonly and employed mostly women.
When Gauron Food Products finally capitulated in 2004, it manufactured only browning, had 22 workers fully employed, and was paying $60,000 per month to the Factories Corporation of Jamaica for a leaking zinc-roofed building.
Today the complex lies in ruins; deserted except for a few crabs and egrets and one small section that has been rented to a retail establishment. It had survived the 70s, but the increasing red tape of the 80s and 90s took its heaviest toll.
Raw supplies were expensive and scarce. Many had to come through layers of red tape to get to us. Utilities were uncertain, at best. In the end there was nothing to do but pay off the workers and dispose of whatever equipment remained. The vibrant businesses were simply strangled by the multiple layers of bureaucracy and unchecked “bandooloo and samfie-ism”.
We need to do a lot of thinking and unravelling if we want save the businesses we have left.
Speaking to Minister Anthony Hylton the other day, I suggested that there should be some serious house-cleaning before trying to bring in further investors. He agreed but said the matter was so complex that it would take "much more dialogue".
Have we got time for this?
Marguerite Gauron
hmgauron@gmail.com