THE EDITOR, Sir:

There is no escape from the second debt exchange and the tax package which will help secure another International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement.

But I am completely opposed to the extension of gambling sales and collection on Sundays and public holidays as one solution to the problem. For far too long, as a country, we have sought to beg, borrow and gamble our way out of financial challenges.

The big problem of successive governments has been very poor stewardship. I read in your newspaper that the Government has a property in Montego Bay unoccupied since 1990 and pays $150,000 per month for maintenance. Surely that could be multiplied many times over.

We would have avoided this crisis situation if there were better efforts to cut waste. We would hope that the compliance officers will monitor the performance of this new IMF agreement and enable it to succeed.

In all of this, my call is for accountability. We have been down this road already.

RAYMOND COKE

coke@cwjamaica.com