WITH just days to go before Christmas, security officers working with Safety Investigations Security Services – which has been contracted by the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) – say they are bearing the brunt of a financial and bureaucratic stand-off between their employer and the RHA, with some workers claiming not being paid since September.

A senior operations officer at the company told Newsday on December 19 that the wage crisis stemmed from the NCRHA’s failure to settle outstanding payments for contracted services, leaving the security company without the financial means to pay its employees.

However, NCRHA chairman and former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh pointed to what he described as years of inherited financial mismanagement at the authority, including a massive backlog of debts owed to suppliers amounting to $321 million.