OPPOSITION LEADER Edward Seaga has challenged Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to take a "firm stand" against Government ministers accused of gross negligence resulting from the loss of millions of dollars in public funds.
A release from the JLP yesterday said Mr. Seaga told supporters, during a tour and rally in the on the week-end, that Mr. Patter-son headed a Cabinet "which closes ranks when the searchlight is focused on ministers who are charged with negligence."
Mr. Seaga criticised Prime Minister Patterson for his continued failure to deal firmly with ministers under whose watch, hundreds of millions of dollars, that could be used to enhance the lives of Jamaicans, go to waste.
He was reacting to the an-nouncement made by Minister of Information, Colin Campbell, at last week's post-Cabinet press briefing, that the Cabinet was 100 per cent behind Minister of Water and Housing, Karl Blythe, in the current Operation Pride/National Housing Development Corpo-ration scandal.
He referred specifically to the loss of $200 million in the NetServ issue, followed by the predictions of billions of dollars of overrun in Operation Pride projects.
The Opposition Leader also criticised the Government for allowing the construction of and operation of the large Rio Hotel in Negril, which he said was to the detriment of small hotel owners. He promised that a JLP government would not allow this.
Mr. Seaga said that while there was a place in the industry for large hotels like the Rio, offering modest rates to attract the volume of traffic from the United States and setting new trends, they should not be put in direct competition with small resort operators.
He promised to reveal his party's tourism plan, which is to be included in the JLP's election manifesto, at a later date.
The tour and rally was followed by a fund-raising dinner at which the JLP's candidate for West Westmoreland, attorney-at-law Patrick Atkinson, was represented to constituents. The seat is currently held by Dr. Wykeham McNeill, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport.
