THE EDITOR, Sir:THE RESIGNATION of Raymond Pryce from the Consumer Affairs Com-mission was probably to be expected given the retraction of price gouging claims by the minister.
It is ironic that the man really in charge (the minister himself) did not resign but that's another matter. What really concerns me is whether he should have resigned and more importantly whether there was really price gouging.
In the first instance, if Mr. Pryce relied on surveys conducted in the field then, like any researcher, his conclusion should be accepted based on criteria used to determine price-gouging.
If there were no established criteria, we are then duty-bound to accept his criteria or reject them and put forward our own. The supermarkets had ample time to present their data to show they were not guilty.
Before Hurricane Ivan, the small 'plummy' tomatoes went for about $30 per pound in the Mandeville supermarkets and the large 'salad' tomatoes went for $50-$80 per pound. After 'Ivan', the prices were about $200 and $250, respectively. Why?
Either there was a sudden and massive increase in the prices of production materials (seeds, fertilisers, etc) that no one was aware of or someone somewhere was making a killing off our disaster.
If there is a paper trail this should be followed and the guilty party exposed. The minister promised this to the people of Jamaica. If there is no paper trail, then someone must be evading taxes and they should be so sanctioned.
So what does this look like to the Jamaican people? It's like another case of a terrible bulldog that barks as long as there is wall between you and it.
It feels like the government is either protecting someone or running from the big money-spenders in the country. What do the Jamaican people want? Someone to stand up for us especially in a crisis.
Should Mr. Pryce have resigned? No. He should have let them fired him then take it to court and have himself vindicated by the available data.
The unfortunate thing is that there still exist high price regimes that the consumers still have to deal with.
I am, etc.,
WILLIAM GORDON
Montego Bay
St. James
