The Editor, Sir:

It is interesting to note that a lot of people are upset with the Government over the toll increase. I am one such person. The Government handled this poorly. It should have been known at least two weeks in advance.

However, the Government should be frank and let the country know the reason for its inability to refinance the toll road.

Up to now, the people of this country do not know the details of the financing arrangements that the previous administration got into. I have often heard the minister of finance and the public service, Audley Shaw, complain about bad contracts that the People's National Party (PNP) got us into.

Questions for the minister

For the sake of clarity, I have a few questions for the minister, and they are as follows:

Which contracts were bad?

What were the clauses that put Jamaica at a disadvantage?

Was the toll road one of them?

What clauses, if any, are preventing the refinancing of the toll road in order to reduce toll prices?

If there are stupid clauses which put us at a disadvantage, were they communicated by the previous administration to the then Opposition?

If so, are any of those persons involved in the negotiation of bad contracts still employed to the government?

What is being done to change the negotiating strategies of the Government so that we no longer have contracts that have clauses which put our people at a disadvantage, whether done under a Jamaica Labour Party or a PNP administration?

To put it bluntly, what exactly is going on, and why are the people not being appropriately informed of the financing arrangements that the PNP had when they were in power and more importantly, who are the persons responsible for those contracts?

It is time that the people of this country are properly informed; this requires changing the approach to governance. If people are to blamed, be they JLP or PNP, then they should be blamed. Too often, civil servants get away with looseness because of the unions and their very strong job security.

Maybe it is time to wake up and realise that the JLP needs to remember that it is governing and not campaigning anymore and clean out the system and make all government contracts public! We the people have sense you know!

I am, etc.,

DAMION HESLOP

damionheslop@yahoo.com

Kingston