Many people have the impression, no doubt false, that the government is after petty corruption cases and leaves the big fat ones out of reach.

His Majesty King Abdullah has repeatedly reminded the government that the public is still waiting for the results of the ongoing anti-graft measures. 

The public also has the impression that the government is cutting down on state expenditures in a bid to reduce the staggering budget deficit in areas where it does not count much.

Commentators still claim that the government is targeting the relatively small and inconsequential pockets of financial haemorrhaging.

When the government says, for example, that monthly salaries of over JD2,000 will be cut by 10 per cent, pundits allege that this is nowhere near enough to address the budget crisis.

When the government says that it is taking measures against the use of official cars for private purposes, yet people continue to see big luxury cars in the service of high officials, when BMW and Mercedes cars are still being used to chauffeur ministers and high officials, the public asks where is the seriousness about the austerity measures taken by the government.

And when people see so many government agencies and bureaucracies still being funded without a redeeming cause, they have a right to ask why all the talk about austerity measures promised by the government.

Pundits claim that more than half of the existing autonomous or semi-autonomous government agencies are redundant. Yet none of them was put out of service.

Prime Minister Hani Mulki is obviously serious and keen about reducing the huge budget deficit and putting government expenses on a sound and rational footing.

By and large, the people have confidence in his pledges in this regard, but the austerity measures “marketed” by the government need to be institutionalised and governed by sound policy directives.

An inter-governmental committee should be created and commissioned to look into the existing loopholes or omissions in state expenditures in a systematic manner that the public can understand and relate to.

Short of that, the government’s austerity measures will remain unconvincing.