by TRACY MOORE

SHOW US THE MONEY!

That was the call from several people who worked in various capacities with the January 15 general election and have not seen one red cent due to them.

One retired person, who did not give his name, said he had not "even been given any information as to when he might see the money".

"We knew there would be a wait, but it has been more than two months. That is too long! And they don't seem to know when they will be able to pay the people who worked.

"They say they want to congratulate us for the job. Well, they should congratulate us by paying us our money," he said.

Polling clerks at each of the 30 constituencies are due to be paid $640 for the Polling Day duty, while returning officers are expected to receive about $800 each for their roles.

A senior official working at the Electoral Office told the DAILY NATION that the money was approved sometime back, "at least a week before the Estimates started, I believe, so people were under the impression that the money would have been distributed by now".

Payment

"In fact, we thought we would have received payment by the end of the financial year, which is March 31. But, unfortunately, we are now hearing differently.

"We know that the entries have been made and cleared for some people to be paid, but because all have not been done, they are saying they can't pay anyone as yet and that they will have to go through the whole process again," said the Government officer.

The source further revealed that a meeting was held with "the boss" [Friday] morning and the internal staff "and she too was unable to give a timeline for payment".

"Some of these people worked at the polling stations; people have to be paid for their equipment and transportation."

When the DAILY NATION team investigated further, it found that the Government's payroll system SmartStream Technologies would be off-line for the next two weeks.

Several calls and messages were left for chairman of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, Philip Serrao, and Accountant-General Margaret Sivers for comment on the issue but neither had responded up to Press time.