Firemen remain unpaid; minister says “tomorrow”

Firemen across the country have been seeing red for the last two weeks but instead of flames, they were looking at their empty wallets. The newly trained firefighters say they’ve yet to be given the cheques due to them on April fifteenth and have been unable to find out why. When we called Fire Chief Henry Baizar this afternoon, he confirmed that open vote workers employed by the department had not been paid. According to Baizar, up until February seventh, the National Fire Service was responsible for payroll but since the elections, that duty has been transferred to officials in Belmopan. This evening minister responsible for the Fire Service, Melvin Hulse, told News Five that he will personally ensure that every firefighter who has not been paid, receives his cheque tomorrow. As for the cause of the delay in payment, Hulse says it’s just a bump in the transition process and was an unintentional mistake.