Letters

The Editor, Sir:

Call him narcissistic, egotistical, verbose or any other adjective one chooses, Greg Christie, the contractor general, is no doubt doing the job his office requires of him, and has also been making strong recommendations intended to stem the flow of corruption in our system of governance. If implemented, these measures could have a tremendous impact on how this country is governed.

I refer to recent comments he made, which were published in The Gleaner of September 23, in which he mentioned that authorities should target persons in the upper echelons of the society as part of a renewed effort to crack down on crime.

Indeed, this is a pragmatic solution to resolving this issue, for we have long been aware that in most cases the so-called 'big fish' are not generally caught. It stands to reason that if serious effort is made to target these individuals, wherever they may be, this will no doubt have a tremendous impact on corrupt activities.

little has been done

But I, like Mr Christie, must question the Government's commitment to pursue any mechanism to deal expeditiously with corruption or facilitate the implementation of an agency designated to investigate corrupt activities. As he pointed out "much has been said but little has been done".

Is it that those in authority are not aware that corruption has serious implications for this country or they naively don't consider it a priority or that they think it does not pose a serious problem to our economic survival? If that's the case, they should think again if they have adopted either position because empirical evidence has indicated otherwise.

serious procedural breaches

I am surprised that Prime Minister Bruce Golding has not acted with alacrity on this most crucial issue. He came into office with the promise to arrest corrupt activities but he has yet to address seriously some of the concerns raised by Mr Christie, who has highlighted serious procedural breaches in the procurement of contracts since his party has come into power.

The sooner Mr Golding seizes the opportunity to make this a priority of his administration, the better this country will be. A great starting point, in his deliberation, I would suggest, is to consider Greg Christie's proposal to establish a single anti-corruption state agency.

We need positive and pragmatic solutions to deal with this problem and I think Mr Christie has been doing just that. The question is, does the Government have the political will to implement any of his proposals?

I am, etc.,

ERROL MCLEISH

ermarlii16@hotmail.com

St Catherine