NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A handful of workers from the last general election have yet to be paid, according to Parliamentary Commissioner Lavado Duncanson, though he explained that these workers had banking information challenges that were outside of the department’s control.
“What we have done up to this particular point is the election workers; most of the election workers would have been paid,” he told Eyewitness News on Saturday as the department continued to destroy the general election ballots, a process that confirmed there were no legal contests of the results.
“We have a number that we are aware of, a number that is something less than 20 persons.
“Each person is extremely important.
“But those cases, as it relates to persons who would not have been paid, fall into the category of banking information, where it is beyond the Parliamentary Registration Department’s control at this point
“As to what we are having to do is we are liaising with the Treasury Department, the Treasury Department is liaising with the financial institutions in an effort to resolve matters that were specific banking information provided, resulting with payments being made.
“And now there’s a need to rectify those situations.
“So, we have about less than 20 persons within that category. It is important. We are working assiduously to resolve those documents.”
It was unclear how long it would take to resolve the matter.
The advance polls took place on September 9, 2021.
The general election was held on September 16, 2021.
Eyewitness News understands there were hundreds of poll workers and election staff in the lead-up to and following the election.
Meanwhile, Duncanson said the department is “aggressively working” toward the digitization of the Parliamentary Registration Department.
“We’ve already started with this scanning of the counter foil, and we are working with downtime to modernize the other aspects of the registration process,” he said.
“The honorable minister would have made mention back to that in his contribution to the House of Assembly most recently.”
