We, the mobilisers from each constituency hired to work alongside the Zero Hunger Trust Fund (ZHTF) and the Ministry of Agriculture, are tired of the neglect, disrespect and the distasteful act shown to us regarding our payments.
We have worked on this project from October 2024 to May 2025 and to date we have not received any payments. Our monthly salary is $1,200 so they owe each of us $9,600.
Our duty is to register and distribute seeds, seedlings, and poultry chicks to people in the constituencies to which we are assigned. We have to use our phones to call individuals in the community, and when going out into the fields, we walk or take public transportation. In some areas, we have to hire private vehicles to take us there. When visiting these areas, we have been insulted and chased by some individuals who have issues with the government.
The CEO of the project told us in our last meeting, which was held in February, that she had written to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture numerous times before being transferred to another ministry and had not received any response since then.
We, the mobilisers, have not heard from the CEO or anyone from the Ministry of Agriculture about our payments. We have reached out to our area representative, who also reached out to the Minister of Agriculture and was told by Minister Saboto Caesar that we, the mobilisers, were paid, only to find out from us the mobilisers that this was not true.
No one has been paid since they started working; they have us spinning in circles.
We need our payments now. I am appealing to Prime Minister Dr. Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves to help us receive our salaries, which are long overdue.
It is ridiculous and the Minister of Agriculture should not be telling his parliamentary colleagues that we have been paid when he knows it is not the truth. He needs to stop lying and not start projects that have not been budgeted for. We need all of our outstanding money now.
A Mobiliser
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I agree with you folks. Pm Gonsalves says he for the people. It sure does not look like it. Many of us are still waiting for our pay out. They tell us we are working on it. Meanwhile we wait.
We are broke and cannot pay. Our economy is collapsing. We have a loan from a country that decided they will have no oversight on that loan but we will have to use that for election.