Therefore, when they meet next week for their 24th regular annual summit in Montego Bay, they would be expected to come forward with more than "recommendations for action". They must be seen to be on the offensive for the "implementation" of their recommendations.

In this context, they have an obligation to ensure that specific arrangements are not further delayed to have the Caribbean Community Secretariat structured for the level of efficiency and accountability required at this phase of the 30-year-old regional economic integration movement.

For far too long CARICOM leaders have been lamenting the lack of effective implementation of decisions within the Community. There have been various mandated studies.

But perhaps the most important one of immediate relevance is that submitted since January 2002 by a team of five regional technocrats.

Entitled "A Review of The Structure and Functioning of The Caribbean Community", the report contains wide-ranging recommendations.

These include the scope of authority of the Secretary General, appropriate structures for the functioning and accountability of senior managers, plus a related and quite pertinent call for a performance management and financial audit in the operations of the Secretariat.

It is a very serious oversight that there has never been a performance management and financial audit in the more than three decades of the Secretariat. This lapse must be corrected.

No serious action was taken for more than a year to deal with the mandated report into the structure and functioning of the Georgetown-based Secretariat. But by last February, when CARICOM leaders met in Port-of-Spain, they mandated an "expert group", comprising by five Prime Ministers, to come up with recommendations on new "options for governance" of the Community.

One of the more significant proposals discussed by the expert working group is for active consideration of a core recommendation of The West Indian Commission's Report of 1992 that called for the creation of a high-level CARICOM Commission with executive powers.

This may undoubtedly be a more relevant and necessary mechanism to improve the delivery capacity of the Community in the service of the region's peoples.

But as they consider the timing, structure and empowerment of such a visionary body, the CARICOM leaders must not again fail to demonstrate that they are ready to come to grips with an appropriate structure for efficient functioning of the Community's Secretariat.