LETTER OF THE DAY - Wong must pay for wrongs

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I join the call by this newspaper and other well-thinking Jamaicans for greater accountability and probity in the management of Jamaica's affairs.

First, I support the call for the immediate resignation of the chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), Patrick Wong, for what, in my view, is a clear dereliction of duty. It should be no longer possible, in modern democracies, for public officials to operate with impunity and without consequence when they have committed clear breaches of public policy that run contrary to the best interest of the nation.

The NWA should never have approved expenditure of more than $100 million to refurbish its offices when every day there are citizens protesting for better roads and infrastructure; when the state of the economy is in a dire state; and when people are struggling to put food on the table. This error of judgement is without excuse and also calls into question the laxity of Works Minister Mike Henry himself.

The only proper thing for Mr Wong to do, in light of the fact that he also featured in the earlier controversial Christiana road project, is to resign.

Recently in the United Kingdom, the head of the border-protection agency, Brodie Clark, allegedly acted in contravention of Cabinet's decision to pursue a tightened regime of border-control checks in support of the Government's immigration policy, and the home secretary, Theresa May, immediately requested his resignation. While this is being challenged by the senior public servant on the basis of the use of his discretion to avoid long queues, the main point here is one of accountability within the public service and, indeed, our political directorate.

Customs breaches

In this vein, I therefore also support the idea that someone ought to be held accountable at the Customs Department for a clear breach of government policy in relation to the ban on the scrap metal trade. The longer this unfortunate precedent is allowed to continue in Jamaica, the more unprincipled and unaccountable our democracy will become.

In the meantime, I want to commend the auditor general's and contract general's departments for holding up the high standards of public accountability despite opposing forces who would rather be content to protect their petty personal and political interests, as well as swim or sink in the sea of corruption.

STEADMAN NOBLE

teddynob@yahoo.com