The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama Urban Renewal Workers have not been paid since May because they lack official contracts, former FNM cabinet minister Dion Foulkes claims.

Mr Foulkes said the workers were only paid last Friday after a seven-month delay because there was “no legal basis” for the Public Treasury to pay them. xHe said the workers were issued their contracts last Thursday – a day before they were paid.

“Every government worker (must be) either formally engaged by letters of appointment or they have to execute a contract,” he said. “In the case of Urban Renewal workers, they are contractual workers, and they just told the people to report to work and they never vetted them, they never did anything. They just told them, go to work.”

What “normally happens,” the former Labour Minister said, is that candidates will present certain documents – including reference letters – prior to a vetting process and an interview. “Then a contract would be drawn up and signed by the ministry – in this case the Ministry of Works – and each officer of Urban Renewal,” Mr Foulkes said. “Apparently that was never done and that was the reason they couldn’t be paid. The Treasury would not pay them until they saw a signed contract. That’s how their system operates.”

Last week, Mr Foulkes called on Prime Minister Perry Christie to fire Philip “Brave” Davis, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works, over the delayed payments. “The fact that Urban Renewal workers have not been paid since May is a national disgrace,” he said. “The very same workers who are mandated to bring help and hope to thousands of Bahamians are themselves in need of urgent assistance.”