Officers of the Social Development Ministry who may be ill-treating members of the public will be getting training soon in a quality customer care programme.
Social Development Minister Cherrie Ann Crichlow-Cockburn on Monday confirmed the programme when she replied to questions from UNC MP Suruj Rambachan in the Standing Finance Committee’s meeting.
Rambachan related that some members of the public came to him crying due to ill and rough treatment they got from such ministry officers.
“Some officers are uncouth and unfriendly sometimes. What is the minister doing about retraining and sensitising them to their jobs, minister?” Rambachan asked.
Crichlow-Cockburn said while it was recognised some officers were not of the best quality, the ministry would be undertaking a training session in quality customer care service and the first people who would be subjected to such training would be officers who interacted with the public.
Rambachan also asked about some officers who set policy on their own, regarding award of pensions when they found that some pensioners’s family took them for overseas visits.
He added: “The relative of some elderly people send tickets for their loved ones and they go and visit them but these offices tell them they cannot continue to get their pension even if they only stay away for a month.”
Crichlow-Cockburn said there were policy guidelines regarding pensions. She said a person’s pension’s was put on hold if they went away and when they returned the payment was reinstated. About 90,800 senior citizens received pensions this year.
Crichlow-Cockburn also said the biometric card programme was on hold while Government considered whether it made sense going forward with that in the current economic circumstances. She said a new debit card system was in the works.
The minister also said the Riverside car park in Port-of-Spain was being subjected to an electrical upgrade and facelift costing over $3 million. But she said residents of the centre did not have to move while that was done since work was being done around them.
She said the proposed location for a Social Displacement Centre at Queen Street, Port-of-Spain, was deemed unsound and the ministry had not decided if it would use the land to build a facility and was currently seeking an alternative location.