By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

V ALFRED Gray, MP for MICAL, admitted yesterday that government workers in Mayaguana have not been paid since August, but said the Treasury refused to release the salaries until the island “tightened up its security”.

However, Mr Gray said some of the workers were finally paid last week, after “security measures on the island improved”. In August, the island’s administrator Charles Moss was robbed.

According to police, Mr Moss was taken from his home by a number of armed men who beat him before forcing him to open his office safe from which they stole a significant amount of money. The money was earmarked for salaries and other essential needs on the island, the most easterly in the archipelago.

On Tuesday, Dion Foulkes, former Labour Minister in the Ingraham administration, said that government workers in Mayaguana had not been paid for some time.

Mr Foulkes said Prime Minister Perry Christie and Mr Gray should apologise for the “unnecessary hardship and social dislocation that they brought upon the people of Mayaguana.”

Mr Foulkes claimed that because of the non-payment many of the “hard working people of Mayaguana have had their electricity supply disconnected by BEC.”

Mr Foulkes called the matter a “national disgrace.”

However, Mr Gray blamed the payment delay on the robbery in August.

“I know that there was a delay in the payment of government workers in Mayaguana because of the robbery,” Mr Gray said. “That was because the Treasury hadn’t sent any money down there until security measures were improved. The auditors were down there and they were conducting their investigations to find out how much money was taken, under what grounds they were taken and the security measures needed,” he said.

“The improvements have now been made down there with the auditors’ help. There really was a lot of things going on and now that is completed I am told that the money is in place. But there is a slight hold up because this week the administrator is not in place because he is attending a local government conference in New Providence.

“So when he returns and beginning next week they should be in a position to pay those who are owed. I am also told that some payments were made last week to government workers.”

The police have never revealed exactly how much money was stolen from the administrator and no one has been charged in connection with the incident.

Since the robbery, Mr Moss has not returned to work.

The Tribune was told that Zephaniah Newbold has been appointed in Mr Moss’ place.