‘You will be paid’ – Delancy

WESTERN BUREAU:

Savanna-la-Mar mayor and Chairman of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC), Danree Delancy, says that some students who participated in the Ministry of Local Government’s National Youth Summer Employment Programme (YSEP) did not receive their remuneration because they provided incorrect banking details.

According to Delancy, the 465 participants were told from the outset that they should be the principal holders of the bank account submitted for funds to be paid into at the end of the programme. However, some participants did not meet this obligation.

“I have been advised that whatever payment issues might still exist will be sorted out in very short order. One of the reasons that caused some of the hitches was that some participants, despite being told that they would have to be the primary holder of the bank account that they submit for payments to be made, still went ahead and submitted a family member’s bank account,” said Delancy.

“There were also issues with some of the bank account numbers being incorrect, resulting in payments being sent to incorrect bank accounts. Some of these payments, I have been told, have since been returned, and some of the payment transactions bounced,” Delancy told last Thursday’s monthly meeting of HMC, where the matter was discussed.

The mayor said that the affected persons would soon receive their payments. “All of these are being sorted out by our accounts team, and I want to assure all our participants that you will be paid, so there is no need to worry about it,” added Delancy.

Twenty thousand young people across the island were provided with employment over the summer holidays at a remuneration rate of $60,000 for the period.

Half of that number was directly provided for under the YSEP, while the other portion received employment in the Government’s summer programme, where HEART/NSTA absorbed 4,000, and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) 1,200. Other government agencies also engaged some participants.

Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie, addressing the launch of the programme in Trelawny in June, said then: “It is the first time Jamaica has experienced a youth summer employment programme of this magnitude, and I am going to say that it is the largest youth summer employment programme in the Caribbean.”

Of the 465 participants, 40 persons did not complete the entire programme.