LETTER: Gross and Painful Incompetence at the Public Treasury

James E. Knight

Ever since I began working in the Public Service, and had reason for going to the Treasury, I have witnessed people experiencing an agonizing  time at that establishment. I witnessed poor people returning over and over before getting some pittance of a wage, sometimes having to pay a bus and buy even drinking water, before returning home empty-handed.

On one occasion, I complained loudly on behalf of such persons, while others of us, whose circumstances were better, stood in line with them, attempting to sort out some   money-related issue. That was a long time ago.

Fast forward to 2026. New building; better organized and sophisticated space; modern computer technology; more academically qualified and sharp-looking staff. One should expect less agony. But, alas!

I had a one-year contract with the Ministry of Tourism, from August 2023 to July 2024, for which I was to receive a full salary. Then I was held for another year, from August 2024 to July 2025, for which I was to be  paid a very modest retainer. In that first year, I never got a salary deposited to my bank account until the end of January 2024. That is, I was not paid for the first five months. However, I got a salary for two extra months, August and September, when I should have been getting just the retainer. Well a simple subtraction should have solved that. Oh no. I never received a cent for the second contract.

This is the end of March, 2026, and after more than a year, numerous attempts by senior staff of the Ministry of Tourism, and in recent months an intervention by Minister of Finance (who happens to be the Prime Minister) the staff at the Treasury can’t figure out that they owe me three months of salary from the first year (when the two extra payments are subtracted) plus all of the retainer payments for the second year.

As a matter of fact I was told time and time again that they couldn’t even find me in the payroll records in their system; even though I did receive a gratuity for the first year. So for what was the gratuity?  Worse yet, is the suggestion now that they may have overpaid me, so that I may owe them instead. Well, where are the records of such payments?  Because, in those two years, my bank records don’t indicate any such deposits apart from those nine months of salary which would have been for the first year.

Common sense, grade three maths and computerized records should not allow this sort of ridiculousness to be taking place. Yet, when someone convinced me to go once more to the Treasury, after the Minister of Finance had intervened, I was at first told the same nonsense about there being no record of my existence in their system. After I raised my voice and insisted, it  was discovered that there were some cheques for me, and the Payroll Assistant told me to return for them within a few days.

I was reluctant to go back to the Treasury, fearing that I might be told some damned foolishness again, but someone advised me to do so. Horrors! There was a different Payroll Assistant at the window, I did not know the name of the one who had instructed me to return, and nobody could figure out what I was talking about. I was not in the system. I got so angry that I shouted and pounded on the counter. I found it unbelievable that after the Minister’s intervention, and a promise some days prior from a Treasury staff member, that I was still where I was more than a year before.

The police officer put me out of the Treasury and threatened to arrest me, and I controlled my temper only because he had a gun, quite frankly. I’m not asking for a Ford Bronco. I’m simply asking for overdue salary.

The next day I got a call about some cheques. They sent them up to the Ministry of Tourism. I let a day pass to calm my nerves, just in case, and it was the wise thing to do. The cheques were for some small amounts of money that I either forgot about or never even knew about. There was a cheque for a per diem for travelling somewhere in 2017 and little amounts for acting a day or two as Chief Medical Officer etc, all before I worked in the Ministry of Tourism.

Imagine now, when the kindergarten folks finally figure out what they did not put in their tablets, I will then have to explain to them that I am not on any more government contracts since July of 2025, and therefore they need to start paying me my small government pension, retroactively. Will that take another few agonizing years to have figured out?  Will they find me in the system?  But they can’t walk and chew, let alone walk, chew and breathe. So for now, I just want them to pay me what they owe me from the Ministry of Tourism.

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