00:00Termination letters to over 300 CPEP contractors on Friday left over 10,000 of their employees
00:08on the breadline.
00:09I used to work CPEP, it's no more.
00:13I would like to get an answer of what and when and why.
00:17Why they do us that because they know that we are poor people in this country, we have
00:22lives too, we have bills too.
00:25Many are left in a place of uncertainty.
00:28They've heard talk of being rehired pending the outcome of an audit.
00:31But no one knows for sure.
00:33On Wednesday, contractors and their employees woke to the CPEP head office in St. Madeline
00:38in protest, demanding answers and hoping to be rehired.
00:43As much as we love people like to say, it's small money.
00:46The same small money was doing something for the children.
00:51It was feeding them.
00:52It was doing something.
00:53Let me tell you something.
00:55That spoon, it might not be a pot spoon, but that little teaspoon is doing something.
01:00I want to know when will we get to mark the CPEP work and how soon and how sure this is
01:07for us.
01:08You see, all these people have seen here, nobody here is begging.
01:11They're standing for what they're working for for the past um, ten years, couple of years.
01:16The promise of a final one-month payment by the minister, they say, will do little to nothing
01:27for families, especially those with children and upcoming book lists needed for school.
01:32On reaching the front steps of the building, workers called out to officials inside, hoping
01:45to get clarification, but none came.
01:49Members of the media attempted to speak with CPEP's CEO, Keith Eddy, but were told they
01:54could not enter the building.
01:56Hi, were you told that members of the media can't enter the CPEP building?
02:21Shortly afterwards, a senior operations officer at CPEP said he contacted the CEO, who informed
02:27him he could not at that time speak with media personnel and that he was seeking advice.
02:33CPEP, which was previously under the Ministry of Local Government, has been moved to the
02:38Ministry of Public Utilities.
02:41Line Minister Bari Padarat says the move to terminate contractors will facilitate a much-needed thorough
02:47review and audit of CPEP, he says, it was uncovered that the last administration approved hundreds
02:54of contracts days and weeks before the general election.
02:58We spoke with a few such contractors on Wednesday, who called the terminations unfair, saying it
03:04might have been politically motivated.
03:06Minister Padarat says CPEP hires contractors and the contractors hire workers. However, the
03:29government has approved a final one-month payment to the terminated contractors, money from which
03:34he says, it is expected they do what is right and give workers a salary to cover the month
03:40of July.
03:42Cindy Raghumar Chika Singh, TV6 News.
03:45.
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