Retired Public Officers Protest For Increments That Were Withheld 27 Years Ago

There was a protest in front of the National Assembly building today. It happened just as the 2023-2024 National Budget was being debated. The protestors are all retired public officers who demand that they receive two years’ worth of increments that were withheld from them almost three decades ago under the second Manuel Esquivel administration. When their salaries were frozen, they were given shares in B.T.L., and the monies have now grown to somewhere in the region of nine million dollars. It is managed by the Public Sector Workers’ Trust, but the retirees want their money instead of a grocery bag every month as compensation. And while many of them have died, the ones who are still alive marched on Independence Hill in Belmopan and staged a protest while the 2023-2024 National Budget Debate was in session. News Five’s Marion Ali was in Belmopan and filed this report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

These retired public officers are members of the Association of Beneficiaries and Retired Public Officers. They want the government to pay them the monies they were withheld from them from 1995 to 1997 in increments. Their president, Hubert Enriquez shared with News 5 how it all came to this.

Hubert Enriquez

Hubert Enriquez, President, ABRPO
“In the year 1995, the then administration under Mr. Esquivel decided that they were going to freeze the increments for public officers for two years, and it was for the years 1995 to 1997. What came out of that really was an agreement with the unions, the P.S.U and the B.N.T.U. – at that time I was the president of the union – that they were going to implement projects and the projects would have been used as a means of compensation for public officers who had lost those increments. This is now twenty-seven years since and we have not seen the compensation. We have a trust now but it is quite – it is not serving the needs of beneficiaries. So they prefer that they get cash. Instead of giving them projects, they want their monies to be paid to them in cash, as is required by the law. So we are here today because one, we want the Trust to be dissolved, and we want speedy action because the government has said that yes, they want to do it, but it’s taking too long. The last three months nothing has happened.”

Enriquez says that the government had began a grocery bag project every month to recompense the retired public officers, but there was no way of knowing how their monies, estimated to be around nine million dollars, was being handled to operate that project.

Hubert Enriquez

“The trust is continuing to operate as normal, so we fear that if it continues the way it is, by the time the matter is resolved, there will be no funds left in the kitty to be able to pay any level of compensation to the deserving public officers who are beneficiaries.”

But Prime Minister John Briceño went out to address the retired public officers and to assure them that they will receive their monies, but that they will have to wait until the matter is completed before the Court of Appeal.

Prime Minister John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Minister Usher, who is the Minister responsible for public officers was saying that the government can put in an affidavit of support at the Court of Appeal. So, we are prepared to do that. I was saying that, as you know, my position has been from the beginning that we believe that this trust is supposed to be wound up, shut it down so that you guys can get your money. You need it, unu done retire. (Cheers)  But unfortunately it is in the courts, it’s in the Court of Appeal, so that’s why the government would have to wait until we done finish that case. Now what Minister Usher, the minister in charge of the public service is telling me that what we can do, we can send in affidavit in support of what you are requesting. So we can do that, but unfortunately we have to wait until the court case is done.”

The Prime Minister, accompanied by the Minister of the Public Service, Henry Charles Usher, told Enriquez that he is prepared to meet with the Association leadership after the Easter to further discuss the issue. Marion Ali for News Five.