This morning pensioners who went to the Atlantic Bank to collect their monthly pension were turned back because government had insufficient funds in the bank.
It's an embarrassment for the government as we have been told that as many as two dozen pensioners had to be turned back. But more than an embarrassment, it's an unspeakable setback before the weekend for the pensioners.
One 77 year came to us to tell us her story. As the wife of a deceased policeman, Cynthia Richards collects a monthly pension from the orphans and widows fund, but this morning the great grandmother was crushed when she was turned back at the bank. She came to us because this longtime PUP marshall and former Miss Y candidate says, "these people need a scolding."
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
77 year old Cynthia Richards sits in her wheel chair, her two great grand children at her side. It may look like the perfect family portrait, but it’s not. This morning when she visited the Atlantic Bank carrying pension check number 437391 for $349.92 she was turned back, no money in hand and the only explanation is this slip stapled on to the check saying return to drawer.
Jules Vasquez,
So usually you go to the bank and they cash the check and today they refused to cash the check?
Cynthia Richards,
“Yes. I used to get it first at the Treasury and now they send it over to Atlantic Bank to cash and now I got nothing.”
Jules Vasquez,
So what will you do mam? How will you cope?
Cynthia Richards,
“I don’t know. I have to go home. I don’t know what to do. They told me they don’t have any money at the bank.”
No money at the bank, at least not for this check to draw on. Today as this matriarch clutches the check, turned into a worthless piece of paper, she is resentful. Resentful because all her life she’s given and in the eve of her life and at the point when she is most in need there is nothing for her to draw on.
Cynthia Richards,
“I worked all my years. I have been working from I was 12 years old until age 74 I stopped. I am not a lazy person who is looking for someone to mine me [take care of me].”
That was then, now however she’s bound to a wheel chair and very much in need. So much so that her two great grandchildren are at her side during school hours because she has no money to feed and clothe them.
Cynthia Richards,
“I don’t got anything I got nothing. See look at the little boy tennis [referring to her grandson]. They sent him home from school because he had fever because it looked like the water went through the tennis. They sent him yesterday and he can’t go to school. This little one [pointing to her granddaughter] didn’t go because nothing is at home to eat.”
No shoes to wear, no food to eat, no money in the bank and nowhere to turn for this 77 year old mother, grand mother and great grandmother - a sorry situation, that’s bankrupt in every sense.
The good news is that as of this afternoon, the situation has been remedied. Sources in the Central Bank tell us that this afternoon the bank transferred $1 million to Atlantic on behalf of the government.
Cabinet Secretary Bobby Leslie said he was alerted to the problem and contacted Financial Secretary Hugh McSweaney who called the bank manager to straighten out a situation he characterized as a mere slip-up. Leslie explains that there was a shortfall, but the bank should have allowed the checks to go through on an overdraft, but it did not. We are told by banking sources, that the overdraft had been exceeded and that’s why the payments were shut down.
Of course, all this is neither here nor there for Cynthia Richards and this evening we could not locate her to determine if she had gotten her money.