While the troolie palm roof of the Umana Yana is completed, Wai Wai workers from Rupununi, Region Nine, yesterday bemoaned the delay in the payout of their wages.
“We have completed the job and when we thought that arrangements were made for us to be paid we were told that we have to hold on. But no one can say when… one time we hear month end, next time next week,” one of the workers, who asked not to be named, told Stabroek News yesterday.
When contacted, Minister with the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe told this newspaper that her ministry was unaware of the payment lag and would swiftly move to address the issue.
Garrido-Lowe said she understood the agony of the workers given that they live far away and it would be both costly and time consuming for them to have to return to the capital for their wages.
Construction of the $66.7 million structure commenced last month, with more than 32 Wai Wai men from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) working to complete the “shell” of the benab in an eight-week timeframe. It is planned for the monument to be fully functional by Independence Day.
One worker said that he could not “afford to leave” Georgetown for Region Nine and return as he was told that he would not be reimbursed for the return trip.
As a result, he said that he preferred to remain in Georgetown, until his wages were processed.
He said that his team also anticipated being paid before they returned home because it would have given them a chance to purchase items needed in the city, since in their villages and at Lethem the cost for some goods is sometimes quadrupled. “We explained ourselves to the contractor in charge, that we came so far and it would not be good for us to have to come back to collect the money. To come from where we are and return by bus would run you into over $30,000. We cannot afford to leave,” the man said.
“We were saying that once we get our money, we can purchase our items and have them to travel back…it is very very expensive to shop where we are and sometimes you don’t even get everything,” he added.
He said that the group feels “stranded” and pleaded with Stabroek News to “bring awareness to the minister so that we can go home soon.”
