Gov't can't pay ganja cutters

The Government has been unable to pay the civilians it employs to work with the army and the police to cut and burn ganja fields across the island.

As a result, the Ministry of National Security and Justice will be skimming from the budgets of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to meet a targeted $6-million annual budget and pay the cutters.

"We are working out the logistics but 50 per cent of the money will come from JDF subvention funds and the other half will come from the JCF," said Woodrow Smith, director for Security and Narcotics with the Ministry recently.

The United States once funded the programme to the tune of US$100,000 to US$200,000 (approximately J$4.6 million to J$9.2 million) annually. That was stopped on June 1.

Some civilians in the programme visited the Ministry of National Security and Justice recently to complain about loss of income due to the suspension of the programme last month.

"We don't work for eight weeks now," said a man who has been a cutter for five years and who claimed his name could not be published for security reasons. "They say money is the problem. They say they don't have any money to pay. Them say the Americans stop send the money."

Mr. Smith explained that there was internal confusion over how the salaries of the workers were to be paid since the U.S. Government stopped funding the programme.

"There was a slight suspension of the programme because accounting personnel was a bit confused about where the funds were coming from to pay the workers. We sat down with the Permanent Secretary last Friday (June 22) and identified the source of funding for the programme," Mr. Smith said.

Jamaica is identified by the U.S. Government as the number one ganja exporter in the Caribbean. The country's effort at eradicating the crop includes deploying the police, soldiers and civilians to various parts of the island to cut down the weed. And while the work of the security forces is covered by their monthly salaries, the civilians are paid $2,000 per week as casual labourers.

But the workers who are not only worried about their wages, complain about job security and work conditions.

"It is very hard work, cutting is hard, burning is hard. I don't like the work but I can't do any better," said another cutter.

The civilians claim they do not wear special gears, they sleep on the floor of community centres or whatever form of shelter is available to them as they travel from parish to parish on assignments.

"We sleep on the ground, we don't get no blanket or sheet," the man said. "The police dem sleep at police stations."

The Ministry acknowledges that the conditions are not ideal and plans to build shelters for the workers.

"We are using community centres for cutters to sleep in," Mr. Smith said. "We are about to do construction for a hostel for the cutters in St. Elizabeth and we are planning to build three or four more across the island."

Back to News