Payment of YTEPP stipend

THE EDITOR: YTEPP wishes to provide the following information relative to writer VS Charles’ submission as reported in Newsday January 25, 2005. The current cycle which began in September 2004 is the first time since the programme started back in 1988 that “stipends” are being paid to all trainees. In the current cycle, a total of over 3,200 persons are enrolled in 200 plus courses which are being offered at 27 centres throughout Trinidad and Tobgao.

Trainees were requested to submit information relative to the preparation of appropriate pay documents for record keeping purposes. In many cases, the information submitted by the trainees was incomplete and clearly incorrect and (therefore) had to be redone. The preparation and payment of the stipend has a lag-time as attendance records for one month form the basis for payment in the succeeding month. Notwithstanding the above and the time taken to put a system in place, we understand the writer’s anxiousness to collect his “promised” stipend on a timely basis, moreso, because he wishes to relieve his mother’s serious indebtedness to the moneylender, acting no doubt, as she does on behalf of one of our ambitious and focused young trainees.

As for the writer’s concern about “our outstanding money,” let it be known that stipend payments for November and December 2004 have been prepared and will be paid before January 31, 2005. We thank the author and all other trainees in our programme for their patience and understanding in this matter.

KYLE A THOMAS
Chief Executive Officer
YTEPP, St Vincent Street
Port-of-Spain