Flow/Cable & Wireless Issues Bill To Government Amounting To Several Million Dollars

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Lionel "Max Hurst, Government's Chief of Staff

Flow/Cable & Wireless has made claims that the Government has outstanding bill payments that amount to several million dollars.

The matter was discussed in the weekly Cabinet meeting on October 30, where Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst shared the Government’s plans.

According to Hurst, the General Manager of Flow/Cable and Wireless was asked to account for the implementation of a new service plan purchased by the Government, for telecommunication services provided by that firm.

The new plan was intended to lower the monthly charge but the General Manager disclosed that it was the existing unpaid arrears that accounted for the significant debt.

Hurst says the firm agreed to provide a breakdown of the monthly charges, and the government will await the provision of the data. The Minister responsible for Technology will continue to liaise with Flow in order to ensure an early settlement of the dispute.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. How many millions does the Government owed to Flow.I need to see actual numbers.Several millions is not a figure.It does not say anything.

  3. This shows that Government’s accounts are not accurate and do not reflect the liabilities that are out there. Many times small businesses, contractors and others have to come to government to seek payments of goods and services provided many years ago. It is like someone is throwing away the invoices when they receive then. It is a way of hiding theft. Lets say you go and take credit at a company for something that the government did not authorized. You then make sure that the invoice does not see the light of day in the short order. There is so much fraud going on by public servants and the government would do well to hire a company to look at all the systems and processes and highlight where the system has weaknesses and can lead to fraudulent activities. In the past I have try to shed light on the fuel consumption by government vehicle by all government department, Barbuda and the Police and the Army and even Mount St. John’s Medical Centre. It is one of the biggest unaccounted heads in the governments account. And WIOC has no problem with it. They offset everything on a monthly basis with the Consumption Tax they owe the government. So if they owe the government lets say $2million and they have supply the Car Pool Centre with $1million in fuel they will immediately deduct that from the settlement and pay in just $1million to the Treasury. If Flow had that option they would have done the same. Presently APUA suffers the same fate. Government and Statutory bodies do not think it’s their priority to pay for any service provided by them. Not Electricity, not Water nor Phone to include Mobile and Internet. How long can this go on?
    Civil Servants are very irresponsible with states resources. They just do not care. Look at stationary. Everywhere their is a printer, especially if there is a color printer, it will be abused. Private jobs will be printed on it. From church songs leave-lets to wedding or funeral hymn books. Or even children homework or CXC papers. Copy paper just disappears disproportionately with the work produced. All this is tax payers money. And sometimes cleaners help themselves at cleaning products and toilet paper. People walking with empty water bottles to work and going home with full bottles. I mean the abuse is widespread and its more to me like an epidemic. Therefore I think the claim from Flow is nothing new. Public Servants with Mobile Phones covered by a government plan are abusing this. Even when they are on vacation or of business travel they do not give a darn.

    • @Sidelines: And the beat goes on.Along with fingers pointing and laying of blames by you.You have all of the answers to what ills Antigua and Barbuda.Therefore you should be the one leading the Nation.LOL

      • Is that all you have to say. This what I have pointed out are facts. if you have other facts please let me hear them. But many are aware of misuse of government resources by public servants. And especially Public Works Department is the biggest cesspool of all. The PS did a fruitless exercise the other day trying to account for all government vehicles. What has it brought him? A better understand of where all the vehicles are. He still didn’t account for the buses? I’ve been a consultant for many years and have brought order in many large companies. Sometimes if was the misuse of Travel sometimes it was the use of overtime. When you sift through an organization you make lots of enemies but that comes with the territory. If I was hired to that in the government system I would be public enemy number one. Gosh worker is not a new term and has been going on with the knowledge of our politicians for years. And so too is the misuse and abuse of public resources. And any government that want to put a stop to these things will be a one term government. How many public servants don’t moonlight while on the job. Not after work. During work. Some are IT professionals working for the government but at the same time are serving clients mostly remote but sometimes just leave their government job to go fix something for a client. How many engineers in public works that need to oversee contractors are not just going to see about their own private work at the same time. I know of some building private houses at the same time while doing government job. For Cable and Wireless to make that claim is nothing new. There invoices were simply not booked.

  4. It’s time Lienohell Hurst be removed from public office.

    His continued fleecing Antigua needs to be stopped.

Comments are closed.