GECOM temporary workers paid at last

May 13, 2010 News

Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr. Steve Surujbally, confirmed, yesterday, that all temporary staff who reported to the Head Office in Georgetown have been paid.
Last year’s Claims and Objections exercise conducted by GECOM involved the hiring of temporary staff across the country. Scrutineers were also involved in the exercise.
The objective of the exercise was to prepare for the conduct of Local Government Elections, which now seems unlikely this year.
While the temporary staff had to be paid by GECOM, GECOM is funded by the National Treasury.
At the end of the Claims and Objections period, when GECOM prepared the schedule for payment and submitted it to the Ministry of Finance, there was no response. The monies were not released.
This issue prompted discussions at all subsequent Statutory Meetings of the Commission, and consistent follow-up with the Finance Ministry, as well as the Office of the President. This was to no avail, and disgruntled workers who had worked since December/January 2009, began to make waves.
The payments were finally released on Tuesday, and according to Dr. Surujbally, he expects that all workers across the country should be paid by the end of this week.