Desiree Meggs, she's the former career foster mother who dedicated 23 years of service to orphans and foster children at the Dorothy Menzies Childcare Center - until suddenly she went blind.
Two years ago she was forced to retire after being declared medically unfit, and since then she's hasn't gotten her severance and pension, which she urgently needs for corrective surgery, and to pay her mortgage.
Yesterday she told us that the Ministries of Human Development, Public Service, and the Treasury Department have given them the extreme run around, preventing them from getting the pension and gratuity that Desiree Meggs is entitled to after he decades of service.
Tonight there's a major update, a development in Ms Meggs case that came at the hand of her former Minister Dolores Balderamos Garcia. Cherisse Halsall was back on the story today and here's her report.
Last night the country was touched by the sad tale of Desiree Megs, a career foster mother at the Dorothy Menzies Childcare Center, declared medically unfit to work after she quote suddenly lost her sight in both eyes.
posted (April 13, 2023)
Desiree Meggs, Retired For Medical Reasons
"Those people need to give me my money expeditiously. I'm not coming off you know regularly where I wouldn't have minded sitting and waiting and this amount of time is beyond me."
And it seems that after all that time and the very public outcry that Desiree Meggs was forced to make, she's finally going to get what's owed to her.
That's because the Minister of Human Development Dolores Balderamos Garcia saw her story and began to delve into the reasons why her case has been mismanaged:
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"Well, I am very sorry about it, um, I have contacted Ms Meggs already this morning and we are actually going to go and visit her but I do want to say that I have offered an apology on behalf of the government because wherever the slip up was I think that because the lady worked for us at human development and the Dorothy Menzies childcare centre we really should apologize to her and make sure that this is corrected as quickly as possible."
"Like I say the mix-up happened with, as far as I have been able to learn this morning the mixup happened with some of the paperwork not being in order when the papers went from my Ministry over to the um to the treasury and then to the public service so it's like we have to wheel and come again to make sure that everything is in order because she was an open vote worker, so I do accept some of the blame for human development and for that, I apologize but we are working on it today and we will try to sort this out as quickly as possible, certainly within the next three to four days because clearly, that should not happen to somebody who is now in dire straights with her loss of sight and other difficulties that she is going through. As a matter of fact, I will make sure that our families and our women and families support department will give her an immediate ex gratis payment, um, to assist her with getting forward and getting to the medical support that she will need and I will actually go and visit her today."
And when the Minister sat down with Ms Meggs she made sure to tell her that the stalling on her pension is far from the first hurdle she faced within the public service.
Desiree Megs, Former Employee of Min. Human Development
"It is sad because throughout my whole 23 years, 2007 they had wrote the letter ro public service to make me a PE staff. When I talked to."
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"Did they regularize making you a PE staff?"
Desiree Megs, Former Employee of Min. Human Development
"No they did not, no they did not."
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"It was an open vote."
In the past that Open Vote status might have meant no pension at all, luckily for Desiree the law was only recently changed.
But given the abuses Desiree Meggs has suffered we had to ask the Minister how many retirees, whether ill or not are being forced to struggle as they wait for what's due to them.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"I don't think it is a bad systemic problem because papers are usually processed in a decent amount of time, especially for gratuity and that kind of thing. I wouldn't say it's a big systemic problem but clearly, in this event we fell down and we must correct it as quickly as possible but I would like to and I of course will ask our finance people and our accounts people in the Ministry to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen especially where people go off medically unfit and where there is like an immediate need but as I want to repeat that today I will make sure that we offer an ex-gratia payment, um, to Ms Meggs so that she can begin to seek the medical attention meanwhile we process what didn't happen, which is what we hope to do in a couple of days."
After her interview, Minister Balderamos followed up on the case and shared some more info. She says that Megs was paid $3,900 in February of this year for accumulated increments.
She went on to say that the ministry today is making calculations of time spent and that her gratuity and pension files are being sent to Treasury, with the expectation that they will be worked out in a couple of days. Yesterday, we were told by a source that this had already happened and that the file was languishing at Treasury.
In the meantime, the government of Belize has given her an ex gratia payment to alleviate some of the financial strain that Ms Meggs and her household have been experiencing.
