THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE COUNTRY is in extremely serious economic straits. We are, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, with small and medium-sized companies closing down, and more and more people being put out of work every day.
For about 15 years the primary school textbook project has been printed locally. Not only have the various contractors performed effectively every year, but the project also represents employment for a large number of Jamaicans, and the only payments made in US dollars are for the raw materials, which must of necessity be imported.
This government has now decided to award the project to a company registered in Jamaica which does not appear to have a track record in matters of this nature, and has not even got a printing operation in Jamaica. The company submitting this quotation based it on having the entire job, printing, binding and packaging done in the USA. The saving gained by going this route is minimal and would be more than balanced by the increased direct taxes and GCT collected from the contractors, subcontractors and the many workers involved in the project if it was awarded to a local printing company. So it cannot be a question of money!
Even in the distant past, when Jamaica's economy was doing well, it would have been imprudent to move such a large block of work out of the hands of Jamaicans, and give it to foreigners. But to do it now, when we are so desperately in need of the work and the foreign exchange, and to pay for it almost entirely in US dollars is a downright disgrace. The situation is so bizarre as to be almost unbelievable.
What it means is that for very little less than the local quotation, the government prefers to take hard-earned taxpayers' dollars, and use them to support Americans instead of Jamaicans. Apart from the many establishments to be affected by this decision, hundreds of Jamaican employees and their families will suffer.
I am, etc.,
FRUSTRATED CITIZEN
