Govt faces backlash over CEPEP, MTS wage delays

DAREECE POLO

Senior Reporter

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Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles is accusing the Government of failing to pay daily-rated workers last Friday, while also delaying pensions and withholding payments to CEPEP contractors and employees of the National Maintenance Training and Security Company Ltd (MTS).

Speaking at a media conference at the Opposition Leader’s Charles Street office yesterday, Beckles demanded that the outstanding wages be settled immediately.

“I am sure that all ministers receive their salaries on time and in the bank. So, please, the Government, whatever the reason is that the Ministry of Finance is not able to pay salaries on time, we are calling on them, please pay salaries on time,” she said.

At the end of July, Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen had assured employees affected by a salary delay that they would receive their wages following an intervention by her ministry and the Ministry of Finance. The delay affected monthly-paid staff across the Ministries of Rural Development, Community Development, and Culture, though the exact number of workers impacted had not been disclosed.

Earlier this month, a People’s National Movement (PNM) alderman in the United National Congress-controlled Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation raised concerns over the non-payment of salaries to the executives, as well as goods and services for July.

Three weeks ago, Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath attributed complaints from MTS workers over unpaid wages to the “inherited financial mess,” which he said caused administrative delays. Fired Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme workers and those from the National Reafforestation and Watershed Rehabilitation Programme (NRWRP) were also reported to be unpaid.

However, responding to Beckles’ appeal late yesterday evening, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo had some questions of his own for the Opposition Leader.

“Respectfully, I live in the real world and not in Penny’s PNM fantasies. Penny should tell the country why, although she knew about the illegality in CEPEP and the disappearance of millions of taxpayers’ dollars stolen by ‘ghost gangs’, why she still hand-picked her partner to represent the PNM. Those are facts. Citizens are not falling for her childish distractions.”