OPINION: Let's Use Cheques in Our Transactions

The missing US$46,000 must tell us something. The use of cash in transactions is becoming a thing of the past. The Minister of Finance recently declared that the NPP government would bring pressure to bear on the banks to encourage the use of cheques in transactions.

Charity must begin at home. If the Sports Minister had insisted on the use of travelers cheques when he was entrusted with so much public money to travel with, it is conceivable that, the money would not have been lost, and he would still have been at post, and the government would not have been so embarrassed and the state would not have been forty five thousand dollars poorer.

Even if the TCs had gone missing, there would have been a refund and they would subsequently have been traced. It is a win-win situation. As a matter of urgency, we implore the government to put in place the mechanism for education to encourage the public to develop faith in the banking system and trust in the use of cheques to transact business.

Already, some of the banks have introduced innovations like the use of ATMs and Prestige Banking. It is just a short step to the next stage of using cheques for buying and selling.

Let's work on that so that the next time a Minister is asked to carry thousands of dollars in cash on his/her person, that minister will cheerily respond, "let me have it all in TCs."