Chair­man of the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Al­der­man Richard Wal­cott, is deny­ing that work­ers of the cor­po­ra­tion have not been paid for two fort­nights. 

Guardian Me­dia spoke to em­ploy­ees and He­s­ton Lam­bert, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers, who said ear­li­er this year work­ers faced de­layed pay­ments to­talling ap­prox­i­mate­ly $2 mil­lion. 

Wal­cott, in a state­ment, de­nied the al­le­ga­tions say­ing, “All salaries, dai­ly paid and month­ly paid have been paid in full and there are no out­stand­ing wages and salaries pay­ments to any em­ploy­ees.” 

But Wal­cott stressed that the “rel­e­vant re­quest for re­leas­es has been made to pay any out­stand­ing bal­ances on trav­el­ling and over­time al­lowances which do not form part of the reg­u­lar wage and CO­LA pay­ments.”

A coun­cil­lor at the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment-led cor­po­ra­tion, who spoke un­der strict anonymi­ty, said in­suf­fi­cient funds in the cor­po­ra­tion’s vault have led to un­paid over­time, trav­el ex­pens­es, and com­pen­sa­tion for per­son­al equip­ment used for of­fi­cial busi­ness. 

Wal­cott said in re­sponse that over­time, trav­el­ling and oth­er forms of dis­cre­tionary al­lowances now re­quire pri­or ap­proval from the chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer. He said it would al­low for the “prop­er stream­lin­ing of ex­pen­di­ture, avoid­ing abuse and un­nec­es­sary waste.” 

“This mea­sure will now al­low the cor­po­ra­tion to prop­er­ly mon­i­tor and eval­u­ate work done, re­sult­ing in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay,” Wal­cott said.

Sources had blamed the non-pay­ment on a short­age of $2 mil­lion, but the chair­man de­nied any mon­ey was miss­ing or stolen.

He said the cor­po­ra­tion will con­tin­ue to man­age the re­sources and fi­nances of the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion with sound fis­cal pru­dence and dis­ci­pline.