Last week, we brought you the tragic story of Desiree Meggs, a retired public officer who had gone blind and is in desperate need of her pension and severance.
Since our story aired, the Minister of Human Development met with her and promised that she would assist Meggs to get the funds that were due to her. And today, Minister Dolores Balderamos Garcia gave us an update. She explained that there are some discrepancies in the system, but she's working closely with the case and has prioritised it.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"The update is that in February of this year she was given an amount of about $3,900 that went towards some increment that she has not received however I have to admit that we are going trough the entire file and there are some discrepancies in the file which point to a difficulty in the system. "
"When I gave the interview last Friday my opinion was that we don't maybe have such a level of what we call systemic problem but I'm afraid I would have to admit that there are difficulties in the system and that the ministry of the public service working along with the line ministries we will have to do a little bit better than the snail mail, the files that get very thick I think we have to start to digitise because we are finding that going through Ms. Megg's File that there are discrepancies in terms of when there was an increment freeze and so some deductions may have to be made to the gratuity and the pension that she would receive but I think because MS. Meggs is a special case in terms of her blindness and everything what I will do is I will try to ask the Ministry of Finance to see if we can wave some of the repayment that she may have to do. But it would be a special case "
Reporter:
"Since we aired that story though we got a lot of people who are in similar predicaments, they haven't been receiving their pension and they have commitments that they have to pay for medical bills and such. What can those people do to try and get there own cases expedited?"
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
"Well like I say bring it to our attention. Bring it to the attention off the CEO's and maybe the minister of that particular ministry so that we can try to chase what is happening. I must admit there are systemic problems and again being a face to face society when we are aware of it we try to jump on it right away."
