Two Years’ Increments To Be Paid This Year

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(PLTM) - Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon. Andrew Fahie has announced that public officers will be paid two years outstanding increments, this year.

He made this disclosure last night, March 19, during an appearance on a local radio programme.

According to Hon. Fahie, “We sat down and given the finances of the territory, what we did...we are going to pay two years of the increments in this upcoming budget.”

He noted that based on his research, public officers are owed about three years’ increments. “They have already worked for it but what we see was that the funding wasn’t there or the will to do it also wasn’t there,” he stated.

However, while only two years’ worth of increments will be budgeted for this year, he assured that they will be paid the balance, saying, “…God spare life, next year we will be able to pay the balance of it.”

The increased emphasis on the payment of the outstanding increments came after the previous National Democratic Party (NDP) government made a promise to pay workers their owed increments by March 15, if they were elected.

This promise was made mere days prior to the February 25 General Election, and workers attached to the BVI Ports Authority even received theirs.

However, Hon. Fahie last night said that the promise of delivering the increments by March 15 was irresponsible, and he even pointed out that they would not have been able to deliver on the promise.

‘The statement of them getting the money on March 15 was an irresponsible one because first of all, it couldn’t be done during this period because we’re running what you call a temporary budget until the budget is passed,” he stated.

He went on to say, “Second of all, it wasn’t budgeted for. All of this was what I got from the Ministry of Finance when I inquired on the matter. HR (Human Resources) also wasn’t given instructions….but they couldn’t give the instructions cause there wasn’t any money.”

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