Security guards hurting as Gov’t fails to pay bills

Shalk Electronic Security Limited, one of five companies which this year won lucrative government contracts for providing security services to hospitals and health centres across the island, is again in the news for its failure to make outstanding payments to guards in its employ, some of whom complained to The Gleaner that they had not been paid over the past three fortnights (six weeks).

The company, with registered offices at 3 Hampton Drive, Hampton Green, St Catherine, was awarded $348.2 million to secure the Kingston and St Andrew Health Department and all health centres across the Corporate Area in January, when, along with four other companies, it secured contracts for health facilities in the South East Region Health Authority totalling $1.7 billion for a period of three years.

At the official signing ceremony, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton declared that the Government was spending heavily on security to get value for money and warned contract awardees that only the most competent personnel should be assigned to hospitals.

“We want the cream of the crop in public health, we don’t want any and anybody,” he said, highlighting that security companies employ thousands of people and provide a very valuable source of income beyond the security benefit that it gives.

Ten months later, however, security guards employed by Shalk say they are struggling to survive, with bills piling up and creditors knocking on their doors. Some have not been paid for overtime work done from Emancipation Day (August 1) through to Independence Day (August 6).

“Nobody nuh get no pay,” one frustrated security officer confessed to The Gleaner. “Plus, them owe some people from the last holiday gone and them say Ministry of Agriculture owe them over a hundred million (dollars). So that is why them nuh have nuh money fi pay we.”

Despite this, Shalk continues to provide security services to the delinquent ministry.

When The Gleaner tried to reach the permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry, Dermon Spence, on his cell phone, the mail box was said to be full; and when we reached his office, an assistant advised that he was out of office, and his assistant was also unavailable.

The security guards say with all of them caught in the same cash flow problem, they have been unable to borrow from co-workers.

“I can’t speak on that matter,” a member of the Shalk Electronic Security Limited management team told The Gleaner. “I think the best person to direct that (question) to is the CEO, Jeffrey Smith. He is not in at the moment.”

The problem is a recurring one, with The Gleaner in October 2018 publishing similar reports of hardships faced by the Shalk security guards

After waiting for weeks to be paid, they were advised by text message of the company’s hardship in meeting its payroll: “Shalk Electronic regretfully (has) to inform our faithful security personnel that we are unable to meet his pay week period due to financial constraints. We therefore ask you all to bear with us. We are working to pay as soon as we can,” the message read.

The guards say that since then, they have continued to experience hardships in getting paid, as well as difficulty in collecting allowances such as for uniform and other benefits.

A source close to the leadership of the company admitted then that the company was facing a severe cash flow problem as a result of the failure of some clients to pay on time for services already delivered. The source said it was standard procedure for the company to bill its clients for services rendered and it is usually paid on time, based on the agreed credit terms, but this has changed in recent times.