Phillip Chambers wrote a letter calling for the Government to administer the necessary bitter medicine, and I have to agree with him. I have read and debated about Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford and Barbados, and note that I was seven in 1993. I wanted to know why Barbados with significantly less resources, is doing better.

Whereas Barbados bit the bullet early, Sandiford paying the ultimate political price, Jamaica continued down the same path that he had travelled previously. We were borrowing money at high interest rates, to run the country, until we ended up borrowing money just to pay for the interest payments.

brilliant men

We elected brilliant men and women to lead us and the country to greener pastures. Surely these brilliant people could have seen that there was something fundamentally wrong and unsustainable about borrowing money to pay for money borrowed. Was it selfishness or lack of vision? To be fair, I don't think any of our politicians go in to make the country worse off. But good intentions coupled with a lack of accountability and waste have brought us to this point.

The Nettleford Report and the Orane Report both make reference to the wastage and lack of accountability in government. This situation has seen money borrowed being transferred, mainly by way of contracts, bonds and Treasury bills, to the hands of a few private individuals, to the point where they now control almost 80 per cent of a trillion-dollar debt. As the debt grew, so did the percentage owned by Jamaicans. This is debt that the poor now have to pay for through various taxes and tax increases.

bitter medicine

So, as we administer the bitter medicine, we must strengthen our accountability systems in the process as resources are reduced.Mr Prime Minister, remember to fix the leaks within the system before, or as you make the plunge. For it is at that time that people will try to exploit even the smallest crack in the system, and we might just end up back right where we started.

I am, etc.,

DAVIN FERRIGNON

davinferrigon@hotmail.com

Greater Portmore

St Catherine