Deceiving Paris II

The way the government treated the DSL matter shows that it is not serious about reforms.

The objective of any government reform is to make life easier for the consumer. This is done by encouraging more competition to push down the prices and increase the quality of services, and by unburdening the tax-payers from large and inefficient government-run operations.

So when one reads today’s Daily Star article: “DSL: A government achievement or ‘disaster’?”, one gets the impression that the government at best doesn’t understand the meaning of reform and at worst is playing the international community for money by providing something that looks like reform but is simply a repackaging of the old, money-wasting ways.

As the Daily Star reports, the DSL release is bungled, the penetration rate is still the same at a shameful 15%, the government is effectively monopolizing the sector it touted as “open to competition”, and worst of all, the service is slow compared to other countries. A telecoms expert called the release a “disaster”. Ogero should take note.

It is perhaps against the instincts of a Minister who after all comes from a “progressive socialist” party, to seriously reform his sector. This is why our Minister of Finance should intervene under the backing of Prime Minister Seniora before the international donors start losing confidence in this Government’s will to reform.