The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A  GROUP of government workers engaged to survey shantytown communities in Abaco are calling on government to pay outstanding monies owed them for their work.

The workers, who are representatives from the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health, said they were promised payment after interviewing residents of shantytowns in the areas of Gaza and the Gully.

While they have yet to finish their surveys in the Gully, their work in the Gaza shantytown was completed in February, with payment expected in March. However, they claim they have still not been paid.

The Tribune was told that some contractors are also awaiting payments. 

One government worker, who spoke to The Tribune anonymously fearing victimisation, said: “You know what it is to go down in them areas.”

“We spent almost two weeks or more. You don’t know if you would catch some virus or something and that’s a big risk. Mind you, we always went with our Defense Force officer. But still, it wasn’t even a lot of them, there was only one or two.”

The workers claim they are each owed between $700 and $1,000.

“I wanted to use the funds to purchase items for my house, but now the monies what I got and wanted to do something else with, I have to take to buy those stuff, but they should have said to us ‘well, do the work but I don’t know when y’all gone get paid’,” one frustrated employee added.

“But, no they didn’t say that. The Gaza been finished from in February and February coming soon again.”

The worker said they have reached out to several government officials for help, but have received the runaround.

When contacted for comment, Works Minister Clay Sweeting acknowledged that some contractors were owed money for shantytown work, but not government employees.

Nonetheless, he pledged to address the payment delays.

“We’ve ensured that Cabinet has approved funding for us to expand and to be consistent with the shantytown issues. If they are owed funding that the ministry is aware about, they should be paid. We have cabinet approval to pay some persons that were owed money.”