N.T.U.C.B. prepares for hard talk with Prime Minister

The union team has been busy building its case for a salary adjustment for teachers and public officers. And that means not only asserting why that it is justified, but also pointing out areas in which government can find the money to pay it. That probably won’t go over well with Prime Minister Dean Barrow, but N.T.U.C.B. President, Dylan Reneau, didn’t spare any feelings when he pointed out that in one ministry alone, greater efficiency and political will would yield much more than what is being requested by teachers and public officers.

Dylan Reneau

Dylan Reneau, President, N.T.U.C.B.

“When we met with the Prime Minister we offered this issue of arrears of revenue, and lo and behold we picked up the 2011 Auditor-General’s Report and in it tasks about the statement of arrears or revenue. And I have a copy of it here on my computer and it’s saying that the arrears of revenue ending thirty-first 2011 was a whopping four hundred and twenty two million, six hundred and fifty-seven thousand, five hundred and sixty one dollars and forty-two cents. Now, if we were to collect one third of that then we would be able to make the salary adjustment two times over. And what this report is saying is that some of the most flagrant areas where there is a buildup in arrears of revenue is in Natural Resources….Lands. And we’ve heard a lot of scandal in the Lands Department. I think we need to focus a bit on collection of arrears of revenue. It says here from the report that there was an increase of about one hundred and eight million in arrears of revenue from thirty-first March 2010 to thirty-first March 2011.A hundred and eight million in Natural Resources. So that is money that government should have collected but they didn’t…assessments that are there to be collected. Why are we not collecting these monies?”