The staff of the Government Information Agency (GINA) yesterday staged a sit-in at their workplace in the  National Communication Network (NCN) Compound,  Homestretch Avenue,  highlighting  the non-payment  of  their salaries for the past three months owing to the  Opposition budget cuts.

The Opposition parties used their one-seat majority in the National Assembly to reduce the 2013 budgetary allocations to GINA to $1.
Present at their office yesterday morning was Coordinator of State Media Khellawan Lall who briefly told the Guyana Chronicle that the action of the staff is very understandable because they have bills to pay and families to support.
He said further that the government will most definitely take their best interest at heart and see how quickly this issue can be resolved. Pointing out that the Opposition is causing a lot of problems for families, Lall expressed the hope that they would wake up very soon to see the situations that they have created.
Meanwhile, Director of GINA Neaz Subhan told this publication that after staff decided to sit-in, a meeting was held and their issues were discussed.
According to Subhan, the GINA workers have not been paid in excess of three months, as a result of the national budget being slashed by the political opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and the Alliance for Change (AFC).
Referring to GINA staffers, Subhan said: “Their actions are justified because they haven’t been paid for quite a while and people have financial commitments to certain institutions. We explained to them the problem was caused by the Opposition and not  the Government, so we asked them to bear with us while we sort it out.”
However, it was not stated how long the sit-in will last.
Over the past three months, the staff of GINA have faced a range of hardships, including threats to be thrown out of their apartments, inability to purchase new school items for their children for the new school term, and utility services being cut off as bills are unpaid. In addition, more persons are resigning from GINA, creating heavier workloads for persons who remain, among other issues.
The APNU and AFC decided to slash the budget for  GINA, claiming that the Opposition should be provided equal media coverage as  other government agencies. The budgetary cuts is currently a matter in the High Court.