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Government workers have been waiting impatiently since yesterday for their mid-month pay to come in, and tonight, some are still waiting. It usually goes in on the 14th, but a government circular says that an upgrade to the network has created a one day delay - which is one day too many for many public officers living not he edge with commitments to meet.
Payment did go through as promised today - but tonight some with Belize Bank accounts tell us they have still not gotten their salaries. But this evening when we met the C.E.O in the Office of the Prime Minister and the deputy Prime Minister outside their party meeting, they told us very different things about the delay in disbursement.
Reporter:
"The public officers haven't been paid yet?"
Narda Garcia, C.E.O. Ministry Of Finance
"I don't know about that."
Reporter:
"We understand it is a systemic issue, but they haven't been paid yet. And one lady is standing up here because she says she can't feed her children."
Narda Garcia, C.E.O. Ministry Of Finance
"I would need to ask the financial secretary about that. I really don't know."
Reporter:
"We understand that public servants have yet to be paid. We hope there will be paid tomorrow. Do you have any information to say that they will."
Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Natural Resources
"Yeah, my information is that it should. Hopefully it happens by the end of the day. Hopefully the latest tomorrow it's a systemic problem. And I know that the Ministry of Finance has been hard at work. SECO has been hard at work, feverishly so to ensure that that gets sorted out. It's not a question of whether we have the money to pay."
"It's just a question of the system, a system failure. But we've been working hard on it. And hopefully by the end of the day, certainly latest tomorrow, we're praying those people, our people, get their money's in their bank accounts and in their pockets."
Reporter:
"I imagine though sir you have appealed to the Ministry of Finance because you must understand that these people can't go a weekend with their fees."
Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Natural Resources
"Of course. Our staff members have made it loud and clear to us that it's very, very important. Absolutely important. And they are working hard. I the people at finance and people at SECO are very professional people are very competent people. I mean, they could have avoided this. They would have. And I know they are working very, very hard to fix it, man and we're keeping our fingers crossed because we know our people need their money. And they've worked for it already."
