LARGE crowds continue to storm the Bureau of Statistics Office, at Kingston, Georgetown, in desperate hopes of receiving monies owed to them for the 2012 population enumeration exercise (census) completed since early October. Persons from as far as Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, have expressed their disgust and anger at the prolonged delay in payments.
The complainants also claimed that staffers at the Bureau were highly unprofessional.
Despite a countrywide payout having been made last week, people are still going to the office, alleging irregularities on their cheques and other documents.  
Some females complained about misspelled names, cheques without official stamps and inaccurate amounts being paid.
While some persons were advised to visit the office last Friday so they can collect before the holidays, they were grossly disappointed when staff at the Bureau told them to return today, as they were only dealing with queries.

LAMENTED          
Many persons waiting in Kingston lamented that, when they were trained as Census supervisors and Enumerators in September, they had been informed that they would have received the full $28,000 retainer fee by October 26.
However, observing the remuneration process at the Kingston Office, it was evident that all the individuals waiting to collect would have been told they will be called another time.
Others who were anticipating their payments in time for the Christmas season could not contain their temper. One of them, Shelly Thomas, of Farm, Mahaicony was totally disgusted at what she dubbed “the mysterious delay” by the folks at the Bureau.
“I have never seen anything like this in my whole life. We finished the work ages ago and yet we can’t receive our money. This is disgusting, especially when, upon arrival at this office, no one seems to be able to give a proper explanation on the delay in payments, or say why there are so much irregularities,” she declared.
Grace Forde, from a Region 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) village, was equally frustrated and made no qualms in voicing her disgust at the whole situation.
She said: “I have no idea what is wrong with these people. Are they so incompetent that they cannot meet deadlines? They promised to have completed payments by October 26. We are closing off and now that we have the cheques, it’s either short payments, or a whole host of wrong spellings and other things. What bothers me most is that when you come to the office the attitudes you are getting from employees here is totally unacceptable. It’s almost as if they are not concerned whether we get our payments or not.”
The Guyana Chronicle attempted to contact officials at the Bureau for a comment all day yesterday but was told by three officials there that the persons we should be speaking with were out shopping for Christmas.