198 retired police officers waiting for pensions

AS of December 15, some 198 retired police officers were still awaiting the payment of their pension and gratuity, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds told the House of Representatives on February 5.

He was answering a question by Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh.

Hinds said the Government has made and will continue to make available all possible resources to assist the police service so the payments can be made in the shortest possible time.

In a supplemental question, Indarsingh asked if any of the affected officers have been paid $3,500 a month in a provisional pension, pending the arrangement to pay their police service benefits.

Hinds said, "I can't answer with specificity. Since we have made these arrangements, I would be surprised if this was not done."

Replying to a second listed question from Indarsingh, Hinds also revealed some 847 police officers were awaiting back-pay for the bargaining period 2014-2019, as of last December.

Indarsingh asked why the money was still owed.

Hinds replied that it might be for a number of reasons, such as computing the arrangements, including sick-leave provisions, and the availability of records.

Indarsingh, in a third question, asked how many members of the defence force and immigration division were owed pension and gratuity as of last December.

Hinds replied that there were 125 former members of the defence force, 75 of whose files were under active review, while the files of 50 were now at the processing stage at the Office of the Auditor General and Ministry of Finance. No one at the immigration division was awaiting benefits, Hinds said.