Disappointing start to recovery plan

BitDepth#1254

ON JUNE 11, Senator Allyson West, Minister of Public Administration and co-chair of the Road to Recovery Committee appointed by the Prime Minister, answered questions on Canto's Conversations webinar series.

It was a profoundly underwhelming performance. West had no presentation to offer, no statement to make, and instead answered softball questions from Julian Wilkins, former Canto chairman.

That disappointment only continues if you have the stamina to read the committee's first report on its assignment, which is, by turns, a shameless political manifesto, a copy-and-paste job from previous ICT development project announcements and pie-in-the-sky ambition so impressive that it should be a bakery.

Despite the clear shortfalls in ICT implementation that the covid19 restrictions have demonstrated, there is little that's actually new to be found in the document.

With no trace of irony, the report shamelessly declares a commitment to a "Digital First Government," hinging much of that promise on an effort to finally implement a Unique ID programme to replace the national ID card with a more capable digital equivalent.

This is not a new idea. I've sat in multiple discussions over the last five years led by various imported thinkers from Estonia, our digital compass North bearing apparently, on the success of their ID system.

Despite successive Ministers of Public Administration and various iGovTT declarations of commitment to this ideal, not one thing has been done to implement the idea.

Much of what the recovery team's report suggests is more stick than carrot. Adoption of the new Unique ID will be driven by making it mandatory to access government services.

Luxury taxes are rearing their always charming heads again as a way to drive local consumption over imports, despite overwhelming evidence in the local market that such efforts do little to influence taste and a whole lot to build resentment.

In her chat with Wilkins, West declared, not untruthfully, "Having regard to how much financial resources TT has put behind the ICT space, we are nowhere near as advanced as we should be."

Her subsequent promise that the country would be "leaping forward" has no precedent in reality, particularly on the eve of an election campaign, which won't trumpet largely invisible digital developments when there is the success in managing the control of covid19 spread gifted the party in power.

West also acknowledged the importance of FinTech to Wilkins, noting that there is now Cabinet approval to allow a wider cross-section of people to get involved in FinTech activities, "not only banks, but other service providers with the necessary controls in place."

This statement rather deftly skips over the obstructionist initiatives of the Government to early FinTech efforts and the obstinacy of the banking system in clinging to the systems it has worked with for decades.

FinTech is not happening because of either the Government or the banking sector, it is happening because young people with considerable savvy are pressing ahead with making it happen, dragging legacy systems along in their wake.

It was alarming to hear the Public Administration Minister reference the spotty efforts at free Wi-Fi, the very basic ICT access centres that have been in place for more than a decade and, of all things, TTConnect as examples of anything other than the most shameless of sops offered up to a nation hungry for actual ICT development.

The Road to Recovery Committee had three months worth of examples of how technology can enable, and through poor implementation cripple, this country.

None of those learnings are apparent in the first report of the committee. That's not just embarrassing, it's terrifying.

Mark Lyndersay is the editor of technewstt.com. An expanded version of this column can be found there