Way back in 1995 – in the bad old days of retrenchment – the then Esquivel administration froze increments for public officers for two years – and gave them 800 thousand BTL shares instead.
Well, today, almost 20 years later, it was payback time – and Government authorised the Accountant General to transfer the balance of $3.06 million dollars held in a Government Savings Account to the Trustees of the Public Sector Workers' Trust. The fund has been established to hold funds in trust for all public officers and teachers whose annual increments were frozen between 1st April 1995 to 31st March 1997.
In 2007, the share certificates were transferred to the PSU and the BNTU, and now the three million dollars is the proceeds of dividends accumulated from the shares between 1997 and 2007.
The trustees are Ray Davis, Nadia Caliz, Philip Castillo and Enrique Iglesias representing the PSU, BNTU,
Nurses Association of Belize, the BDF and the Belize Police Association.
So, the money has been transferred into the trust and it is in addition to another 2 million which the unions have received as BTL dividends since 2008.
According to a government release, the trust is for the purpose of funding various projects for the benefit of the affected public officers and teachers and their families.
The release adds that all public officers, teachers and open vote workers (including those who have since retired) whose increments were frozen during the period 1995 to 1997 may contact the Trustees for further information about the benefits payable to them.
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