We support Danville Walker's call, made in his signed piece in this newspaper last week, for greater voluntary compliance with duty payments.

But if the tone of Mr Walker's article is any guide, it seems that the commissioner of customs, who is still relatively new in the job, is whistling, as they say, in the wind. He will make little headway appealing to the consciences or "good sense and patriotism" of those who have invested heavily in circumventing the tariff regimes and who, it is unlikely, "can ever be poor again".

However, as Mr Walker pointed out, such corrupt behaviour deprives the state of revenues and undermines the capacity of government to deliver many of the services, of whose inadequacy the same people complain.

Perhaps, therefore, that appeal to people's decency ought to be only part, and a small portion at that, of the solution to customs fraud in Jamaica.

First, Mr Walker will have to work hard to identify and weed out those among his staff who are corrupt, putting his agency in a better position to go aggressively after the cheats. And the public should know about it.

At present, when major customs cheats and other big tax offenders are identified, the preferred approach of the state is to negotiate with them. They may quietly meet their obligation, or some portion thereof, and the matter goes away, hardly ever entering the public sphere.

Another strategy

We propose another strategy. We suggest that such matters be aggressively prosecuted in the courts, in full transparency, with the hopeful effect of these cases being deterrents to other potential cheats.

Going this route will, of course, demand strong will on the part of the Government, including, where necessary, changes to legislation, as well as a readiness to staff the revenue courts with sufficient judges so that the system does not become as clogged as the criminal and civil courts. This can only be of value to the national coffers.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.