Dear Editor,

I write with a great deal of urgency to sound a note of warning.

There are two things which Jamaica has going for it and both must be protected at all costs: these are the tourist industry and Mr Greg Christie, the contractor general.

The tourist industry is the one sector that we can be sure of in this time of recession. Every Jamaican should consider it his duty to watch over the industry. Yet there are people who only watch to see how they can milk it for their sole benefit.

I am speaking of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) which was set up to provide money to finance projects aimed at developing and improving the tourism product. There are politicians who sleep with one eye open, with the other watching hawkishly over the TEF, to see how they can raid its coffers.

Many others see what is happening but are afraid to open their mouths. I’ll be able to call names when the whistle-blower legislation is passed. If these politicians are allowed to have their way, the Tourism Enhancement Fund will be depleted in no time, with nothing left to protect the tourism product.

In the meantime, this is where the contractor general should intervene. Mr Christie is many times the only barrier between politicians and the misuse of state funds. I firmly believe that the contractor general would find much to his interest, should he decide to look into how the funds from the TEF are being accessed and disbursed. I suggest that this would be the find of the decade.

The contractor general’s approach of moving in unannounced would work very well in the case of the TEF. But he needs to act quickly.

Donovan Gardner

St Ann’s Bay, St Ann