A group of tractor operators are accusing the government through the Region Six regional administration of reneging on an agreement to pay them $5,000 per hour for pumping water from communities during the recent floods.
According to the tractor operators, who are also farmers, initially they were hired through a verbal agreement by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to be deployed to various parts of the region to assist with pumping out floodwater. However, the operators said that while they were promised $5,000 per hour, the regional administration at a meeting on Monday tried to coerce them into accepting $4,000 per hour, which they are adamant that they will not accept.
Shatterpaul Shiwlall, of Black Bush Polder, explained that they were hired to work between the Number 19 Village and Tain Village, Corentyne.
However, according to Shiwlall, on Monday they were in a meeting with the Regional Chairman David Armogan, Regional Vice Chairman Zamal Hussain, Chairman of NDIA Board Lionel Wordsworth and others, who told them that they would be paid $4,000 per hour instead of the initial $5,000 which they were promised.
Shiwlall then pointed out to the regional officials that they “had a meeting with Minister Zulfikar Mustapha a couple of weeks ago and he said he was willing to pay $5,000 per hour.”
Stabroek News was present at the meeting, which was held last month at the Albion Community Centre, where Minister Mustapha confirmed that the tractor operators would be paid $5,000 per hour once their hours were verified.
However, the man yesterday said that he was shocked to hear the new amount. He said, “From $5,000 to $4,000 will be hard on us because we paid for security purposes, we paid for fuelling, and at the time the fuel price escalated and we could not have tell the gas station man drop the price and we working with an expectation that at the closure of our work programme we would receive $5,000 per hour.”
He stressed, “They are trying to bamboozle us to tell us [by claiming] that the other region agreed to their payment and we are reluctant to agree.”
Shiwlall declared that the operators are united in the effort to ensure that they all receive their fair and promised payment of $5,000 per hour, while adding that even if they have to choose to go through the legal system they will do so collectively. “The tractor operators are looking out with great expectation to receive what they promise us,” the man said.
Meanwhile, the operators yesterday alleged that at Monday’s meeting with the regional and NDIA officials they were told that if they did not accept the $4,000 per hour they would not receive the flood relief monies announced by President Irfaan Ali for affected farmers, while others alleged that they were even ordered to leave the meeting if they refuse to accept the new amount.
‘Good sense’
However, Regional Chairman, David Armogan when contacted yesterday explained that at the meeting it was explained to the men that the tractor operators in the other regions have accepted $4,000 although they too were promised $5,000 per hour, “and so we are pleading with this region too to accept it and level with all the other regions.”
Additionally, Armogan said that they “were appealing to peoples conscience to reason that you know all these help is being given and the money is very high when we look at the regional level and if everybody else [other regions] can accept $4,000, then we can appeal to the good sense of our people here to accept the same $4,000 and there were many people here who didn’t have a problem with it.”
According to Armogan, at the meeting, 51 persons of over 80 persons present opted to accept $4,000 per hour and so their names were recorded so as to start the process of payment for them. Those who were reluctant to accept the new amount will be engaged in further discussions.
However, the Regional Chairman denied the allegation that operators were ordered to leave the meeting if they did not agree to receive $4,000. Instead, Armogan said, after persons began behaving in a disorderly manner, they were advised that those who were prepared to accept the $4,000 would have their names recorded, while they could not deal with the remainder at that time and they would have to go outside.
Further, Armogan confirmed that verification was carried out to confirm that the operators worked the number of hours submitted by them. A further query will be done today since some are claiming that their log sheets do not match up with the hours listed in the verification system.
However, the tractor operators who spoke with this newspaper yesterday insisted that most of them had worked 23 hours per day and some even 24 hours. “I tell them I stand on my tractor and throw fuel and work all the time,” one operator said.
Meanwhile, another tractor operator, Rohit Harrinarine, also of Black Bush Polder, said that if the government is to request his help again he would “think twice because this wah them a try fa do here, they a try fa rob we.”
Harrinarine said that it is very devastating that the officials are trying to reduce the price, which he never expected. “If we got to collect $4,000 that means me lost $2.136 million and that a lot of money because me come out with [seven tractor] and me expense me maintain them with. Me use me resource to maintain and fuel my machine with workman and it very hard now without my resource.”
The tractors operators also told this newspaper that they have been awaiting payments for over one month to date and they are finding it extremely difficult to go without their earnings since most of them were also affected by the recent flood.
Another tractor operator, Delon Bagot, 30, from Phillipe Village, Corentyne, said that he worked in the Kilcoy Chesney area. He related that one of his tractors was hired and he had worked a total of 508 hours. However, on the verification document there are only 395 hours allotted for him. He said he is hoping to correct this at today’s planned meeting.
Bagot explained that this situation has made him realise that even in cases of emergency, in the future he will need a contract since he feels that efforts are being made by the government agencies to dupe them.
The tractor operators made an appeal for President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, and Minister of Agriculture Mustapha, to stick to the promise made to them to pay $5,000 per hour, as they pointed out that when the government did not have adequate machinery they (tractor operators) trusted them and stepped in to assist to alleviate the situation for residents of Region Six.
