$210M fraud unearthed at NDIA

Jan 28, 2012 News

-workers protest wages, late payments

Amid reports of a $210 M fraud at the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Drainage and

Some of the protesting D&I workers

Irrigation Department, workers yesterday staged a protest over delayed payments and low wages.
According to reports the misappropriation of the funds was discovered at a time when the Ministry is conducting an audit. There are also reports that a Project Manager and an Accountant have been sent on leave to facilitate investigations.
But Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has denied knowledge of the fraud. The Minister however noted that the Ministry has undertaken to revamp the Department which is not sitting well with some employees.
“Some persons in that Department are resistant to the changes that we are making including our Project Manager, Mr. Visham Boodhoo, who has since been sent on Administrative leave and is threatening to go to the media,” the Minister said. Ramsammy further stated that if there is any such misappropriation of funds it will be uncovered as the auditing continues.
Meanwhile Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) workers staged a protest yesterday over continuous late payments and poor salaries.
The workers gathered in the compound of the Ministry of Agriculture where they voiced their disappointment about their circumstances.
Some of the employees told Kaieteur News that for several years they have endured low wages combined with late payments.
“Imagine in December we get pay Christmas Eve day, and they are suppose to pay we every 16-days…when you carry in time sheet sometimes you have to wait until the 15th or 16th of the other month before we can get pay, ” said one woman who has been working at D&I for the past seven years.
Workers noted that they work 16 days a month and that when the cheques are paid, they in turn have to spend money to visit a bank to receive their already minimal salary. “Is only $23,600 and they are punishing us by waiting so long for us to get paid. We have a life to live; how can we survive if they continue to behave as if they don’t care?”
Noting that most of the workers are single parents, the D&I employees said it is unfair for the Ministry to treat persons who are so dependent in such a haphazard manner.
“Georgetown more stink than the East Coast, and East Coast workers getting paid over $44,000; and we in town getting $23,600, and when you talk for your right they telling you that they will knock you off,” one male worker said.