By NEWSDAY REPORTER Saturday, December 29 2012

Every effort is being made to ensure that the URP workers from the Agriculture Programme, Sangre Grande, will be paid by January 4 said Thomas George, Programme Manager of URP.

George stated that as soon as the issue was brought to his attention, he called an emergency meeting with all key persons, involved with the situation.

“I summoned everyone to my office today to ensure that this problem would be resolved. I am making a commitment to ensure that everyone will get paid by the following Friday,” said George.

A technical glitch in the new system that registers people was discovered as the source of the problem. Joseph John, Special Programme Coordinator for Agriculture, explained that there were people whose names were not properly registered, which made it difficult to officially put them on the roster.

Foreman of the gang, Kester Mitchell, from Manzanilla, was one of the five persons who received payment. However, he said he had to register four times for the programme which led to his name appearing on the roster. Another issue that John raised was inaccurate placement of workers in departments.

“People registered incorrectly. Some registered in Core and were then put into Agriculture,” he said.

Karminee Ragbir was one of those people who faced the registration problem. She told Newsday she was initially registered in the Core Programme, but was informed that her name was not put on that roster.

As a result, she was placed in the Agriculture Programme. Ragbir was one of the 15 persons who had not received payment for work done since November 14. John stated that the five persons who received payments were the only ones who had all the necessary requirements.

Some of these factors included accurate registration information, and they must possess a URP debit card. During the time that the workers were waiting on their payments, John made sure debit cards were distributed to those who were yet to receive one.

John promised that they are quickly trying to resolve the problem.

“By this afternoon everything would be ok. We are going to the Minister to make a special request for them to get paid as soon as possible.” However Minister of Food Production, Devant Maharaj, was unable to comment on the issue because he was yet to receive new information regarding the situation.