Caribbean News Now!

By Caribbean News Now contributor

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada -- The government of Grenada said on Monday that the process of payment to public workers will commence on Tuesday and will be completed by Wednesday of this week.

The government said it regrets the delay but assured all public workers that they will be paid by Wednesday. Government pensioners and beneficiaries of public assistance were paid last Thursday.

Meanwhile, the government’s inability to pay public servants their August salaries has been one of the dominant topics on radio call-in shows, as well as commentary by internet bloggers.

Many are saying the government should have had a contingency plan in place and are laying the blame for the problem directly at the feet of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas and Finance Minister Nazim Burke.

“I wish the government would have seen this ahead of time and thereby come up with some innovative plan as to remedy this before now,” blogger Cletus Sylvester said on the website of radio station WEE FM.

“This government has its belly,” added another blogger, Errol Charles, who accused the administration of “inaction, impotence and atrocious fiscal mismanagement.”

Gus Panchoo chimed in: “If Nazim is such a brilliant minister of finance, how could he not have seen the non-availability of funds in the treasury? Has he been joy-riding without a care also?”

Peter Bishop, in a blog on Caribupdate News, said that should assistance be sought from the NIS, it would not be the first time a Grenada government is looking for a bailout from the National Insurance Scheme. He said it’s been done “many times in the past.”

Hamlet Mark, a blogger and chief Caribupdate News commentator, suggested that Burke should be relieved of the finance ministry portfolio.

“I would say in any other serious government in CARICOM,” writes Mark, “the Minister of Finance would not have a job on Monday morning. Not just merely because of this latest development – for it is only the straw that should break the camel's back. But the Finance Minister would be without a government job because of the overall economic management of the last few years; the extremely conservative nature in trying to deal with all the challenges; and the presentation of an unrealistic budget this year that he knew coming in was a package not worth the paper it was printed on.”

Former minister for finance, Anthony Boatswain said he empathizes with the thousands of government workers throughout the tri island state who have been denied their monthly salaries at the end of August.

According to Boatswain, the Tillman Thomas administration has again demonstrated its inability to manage the country’s economy and its blatant lack of concern for government workers.

Boatswain called on the government immediately to convene a meeting of Parliament to review this financial crisis and to put an emergency spending plan in place to avoid similar occurrences in the future. He said no worker should be placed in a situation where they are uncertain that they will be compensated for their labour.

He added that the long term solution to this crisis must be government’s ability is to grow the economy to ensure fiscal sustainability.

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