Over 1,000 employed under NEP

nepPrime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, announced that about 1,200 persons are now employed under the National Employment Program (NEP).

The Prime Minister, at the 21st inaugural meeting of the St Joseph Village Council, insisted that the government remains committed to its social and economic programs, despite the passage of Tropical Storm Erika.

“Notwithstanding the passage of Tropical Storm Erika, this government has remained committed to a number of social and economic programs. For example, we now have, as we speak, about 1,200 Dominicans employed under the National Employment Program,” he stated, on Wednesday.

He fired at critics of the program, who he said described it as an election gimmick

“When we introduced the NEP, there were many who said that it was an election gimmick, that it wouldn’t last for six months, but we launched the program in 2012/2013, and we’re in 2016, and the National Employment Program is going strong, and fully financed by the government of Dominica,” he stated.

The NEP, introduced in December 2013, was said to have been initially designed to engage about 400 to 500 people, employed 1,499 people, in 2015.

Under the program, unemployed people are placed in public and private sector firms. The government then pays the salaries of those employed.

Skerrit also mentioned the Yes We Care program, and the daily transportation of children to their respective schools, as programs which were not impacted negatively by Tropical Storm Erika.

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45 Comments

  1. no name
    April 11, 2016

    first off NEP is who know who.. ministers family and friends getting better treatment and the better jobs, time to get paid is beg, the amount of work you put in the salary dont match it… since 2013 i filled out a form i have been to the office twice to inquire about what is going on, the answer we will get back to you… i told them straight up if my information is in the system delete it.. funny thou i know someone that was fired from their job one week and hired under nep by the next two weeks…. so NEP IS A JOKE

  2. hmmmmmm
    April 11, 2016

    That is not the only issue, the NEP workers within the government why are they not been employed with the government, y are the government hiring new people. The way is the vacant place within the government they should be place there. Another issue a NEP worker cant take a loan even if they want to develop themselves by furthering their education you cant walk to the credit union to get a learn while you earn loan. its really frustrating and the employees even work harder that the appointed government employee. Its just not fair

  3. Caretaker
    April 10, 2016

    FLORIDIAN/SHAKA! you both need to see a Psychiatrist pretty soon before it is too late. you know what is happening to our young children, you kept it to yourself and then revealed it on line. See the venue of the meeting ,no wonder Ki kiwi escaped. I cannot believe the language I am reading on www. You both should be deported and send to a place where no man never go.

  4. New
    April 10, 2016

    NEP! Has anyone taken to the time to actually ask the NEP employees how NEP is working out for them? Some NEP employees get paid to do nothing while others, especially those who have been placed in government ministries with their bachelors and masters degrees work 41 hours a week for less pay than their counterpart public servant. Some of these people have been working in these ministries for two years under NEP and the ministries are yet to absorb them, though they need the service. So they work like the public servant, but they get paid less, they get 1 sick day a month, while a public servant gets 2 and at the end of 1 year they get 10 working days of while the public servant gets 21. Yet they work as hard as the public servant, their degree is milked within these ministries. I know they think some income is better than no income, because they have their student loans and bills to pay at the end of the month.

    • Oh Lawd
      April 11, 2016

      Don’t forget NEP employees can’t take loans and can’t do anything to build their life except try and save.

  5. truththe
    April 9, 2016

    So UWP was right when they said they would employ 5000 people over a period of five years. So you run with the idea, good for you. We are watching.

  6. JoJo
    April 9, 2016

    Roosevelt I caution you as an old friend. You can not carry on running the country like this.
    Dominica will not explode but is about to implode. You were a teacher one time so you know what the word means

  7. OneDestiny
    April 8, 2016

    Most of them they have in the school not worth the money they making. Always on phone and walking about aimlessly

  8. Crab Man
    April 8, 2016

    I don’t question the NEP thingy but what I do have a problem with is the manner in which it done. All government employees whether NEP or others should be getting paid through the treasury just as civil servants. Based on what I know, the idea of politicians handing payments to individuals is corruption and will encourage sexual immorality. I would want to believe over 75% of those who benefit (note I did not say employed because I am not sure about the employment aspect), are women and in a country where people have been impoverished, getting money from politicians that know what it is to benefit from sexual entertainment, whether in Macaw or elsewhere, will open the door for mothers , daughters and others to become victim of the system. I scratch your back you scratch my pipe

    • Face the Facts
      April 10, 2016

      Money should not merely be handed to them. If so a pay cheque should be given to them; not simply cash.
      If what they are paid is sufficient, they should also pay income tax on it.
      It appears the manner of payment needs to be revised. I do think it will make it easier for statistical, funding purposes and of course, for the government/treasury record purposes.

  9. April 8, 2016

    I understand the political realities behind the programme, and I understand why someone in dire need of income would be grateful for it. But even the programme’s beneficiaries must understand that the growth of NEP is a red flag for Dominica’s economy, because quite literally it means robbing Peter to pay Paul.

    • looking
      April 8, 2016

      Yup total agreement. Another issue observed, is that the masses are given the impression that they being gifted a favor.

  10. dissident
    April 8, 2016

    De private sector can’t hire.
    You sending people to work at private businesses but it’s the government paying the salary.
    De business itself unable to pay the salary.
    I know enuff people who no longer want to be part of that program.
    Can government itself hire 1200 people within 3 years?
    Sustainable jobs?

  11. Dominican Passports
    April 8, 2016

    Or maybe NEP stands for Not Employed Permanently.

  12. Dominican Passports
    April 8, 2016

    NEP = Not Employed People

  13. Backstreet coffee
    April 8, 2016

    500 of them are side chicks ..

    • Me
      April 8, 2016

      …will they lay eggs??

  14. Shaka Zulu
    April 8, 2016

    Let us do a little maths. Assume 1200 people get paid $900 a month, that would be $1,080,000. Now multply by 12 months= $12, 960, 000. $900 a month cannot get u much these days. Now add that to all the other waste when you have an annual budget around 400 mil 25% of which is either from loans or to pay debt. Dominicans are forming the Royal fool. How can you guys allow this to happen and 20 years civil servants cannot get a 1% raise. Time for a national strike. I do not get the level of nonsense in this place. The NEP was not set up by parliament and is a labour party scheme disgused as government program using tax payers funds. This is crazy.. I give up!!!!

    • SDSURGE
      April 9, 2016

      Going with your maths for one moment, I am in the UK where the unemployed get 73.10 per week, £316.76 per month. That is EC$279 per week or EC$1209 per month at current exchange rates. That is UNEMPLOYMENT benefit. That is not waking to go to work, that is not having any work, that is not keeping a business afloat that actual pay wages to someone else, who then pays taxes. The question is, although both are moral hazards, which is the prefered?

      • Shaka Zulu
        April 10, 2016

        First of all, you never do currency conversion when talking about monetary issues in two different countries. UK is developed and I bet thier welfare system is established by parliament, and supervised by a non political department. Margaret Thatcher, John Major , Cameron, and none of other British PM never gave out welfare checks from some phony office. You tell me. Unemployment benefit is sort of a security in case one becomes unemployed during which time they have some funds while looking for a full time job. It normally last short term. To your question, I prefer non. I work hard from a lil kid and will continue to do so till I cannot physically do so. I have learned through life to depend on no one because they will think they own you.

      • AAGabriel
        April 11, 2016

        At leat the UK government calls it what it is = unemployment benefit. Skerrit as usual tries to sell Dominicans something that is black but he calls it white. That’s the main problem with this government: lies, deception, political spin, keeping everything secret…

    • Face the Facts
      April 10, 2016

      Are you aware how much those who are welfare and employment insurance benefit recipients in the US and in Canada receive? It certainly is not as much as $900 a month.
      For E.I. benefits, they have to be earning an exorbitant salary to receive more than that amount. After their income is evaluated, taken into account a percentage of it, they have no alternative but to accept it without objection.
      If it benefits them including being employed even though temporarily, they should be satisfied. I would think the majority of them, if not all of them do not live on their own but with relatives. Under the circumstances they must be satisfied with what they are able to obtain.
      How many of them completed high school for that matter?

  15. Dominican
    April 8, 2016

    NEP = FAKE

  16. cameron
    April 8, 2016

    Skerrit and how much are the citizens paid,man stop fooling the people,these people so many of them do not work a 40 hour week,and they cry how small the money is.Where are the so called hotel jobs,which will be another failure,Man you were not elected to do favors for a few,be a man and step down,while you can stop fooling your poor black people.

    • Met Yo
      April 10, 2016

      allu will still vote him in again.

      • Music Producer
        April 11, 2016

        :-D :-D Truly stated! :-P

  17. Addie
    April 8, 2016

    Great job!!! I actually know two people who were employed under this program.

    • Backstreet coffee
      April 8, 2016

      I’ll take no one cares category for $1000

  18. Citizen Kane
    April 8, 2016

    That is not a statistic to boast about especially when the private sector is not creating any jobs and not even willing to employ the interns at the end of their internships.

    Y’all might as well tell the businesses that you are giving them a tax rebate for employing interns and let the businesses manage them that way at least they have a long term job and not depending on a contract renewal every six months

  19. %
    April 8, 2016

    This is glaring example that clowns in government,Greedies and inept leaders does not have a clue about how to create sustainable jobs…Our unemployment rate must have been the highest in the region.

  20. Shaka Zulu
    April 8, 2016

    Skeritt Skeritt Skeritt. It still is a propaganda scheme. What you need to explain is what has the NEP cost tax payers, where is the finances coming from, what is the overall return on the investment in terms of productivity, have we diverted any funds for other projects to continue NEP? These are just a few questions. The bottom line is it was a gimmick concocted overnight that was supposed to be funded by Venezuela in your own words. You will try to fool stupid people with your crap. Government does not spend tax money to duplicate responsibility. Example, you have a ministry of education, yet you hire former minister to do work that ministry should be already doing. The NEP is no difference and is fraudulent spending of tax payers money.

  21. Floridian Diaspora
    April 8, 2016

    You that is my problem with the Labor party. They there boasting about NEP??? These guys are boasting about they are fixing an unemployment situation which they created. Then all those red fools say Amen (so let it be). If you take two steps backwards and make one step forward that’s not progress, that’s regression. You’re still one step behind. I wonder how many of those jobs can sustain one person for a month let alone a family. How many are permanent? How many of those boys had to take a back shot to get their job? How many of the females recieved their job permits in exchange for sexual favors? NEP is not the answer. What does NEP stand for anyway? Is it never ending problems?

  22. AAGabriel
    April 8, 2016

    I am not even going to waste my breath and answer you Skerrit!!

  23. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    April 8, 2016

    Roosevelt Skerrit, gathering political supports having them hanging-out, sitting doing nothing eight hours per day, and according to the new words you learnt “at the end of the day” you give them the tax payer money for doing nothing is not employment.

    That free money which you give to your selected political supporters cannot be considered honest money earned! Whereas you boast of employing more than a thousand people, it would be interesting to detail to the nation in what field of industry, or, any other professional field in which they are employed.

    If your National Employment is sending people’s children to stand in a rum and pore rum into a glass getting people drunk, in what you call internship. I say you are totally mad! All that will do is create a bunch of non-productive people in the country.

    Total dependency on political handout is the worst way for a human to survive!

  24. Tjebe Fort
    April 8, 2016

    We becoming like North Korea, soon everyone will be State employee and P.M. proud of that achievement. Everyone will be punished for not singing the praises of the anointed leader and sent on a correction course to make them see the correct way. It shall be ordained that every church must offer a prayer in their services for the wellbeing of the esteemed leader, who is our new messiah…except we don’t know that yet because we do not have the wisdom of our leader. May God help us.

    • forreal
      April 8, 2016

      so why don’t you go to north korea and live,you will not though?because you value your freedom and you have that privilege right here,even to criticize,enjoy man de country nice

  25. Doc. Love
    April 8, 2016

    Skeritt must also tell Dominicans how many young people from Salisbury, Marigot, Wesley, Roseau South, North and Central are employed under the NEP program.

  26. Ashe to Dust
    April 8, 2016

    You can fool some of the people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.. She where am at. No job.

  27. Pure Possie
    April 8, 2016

    It would be nice if the PM would tell us exactly where these 1200 employees are, and what they are doing, because since the inception of that program I have not seen an increase in the work force. Is he referring to people like Tony Astaphan, Emmanuel Nanthan, those labor offices he has all but replaced village councils with all over Dominica, his corrupt spiritual pastors, and those that are paid to protect his corruption? I’m sorry, I can’t see them. We all know where to find and identify civil servants who paid by the states. Why not tell us where NEP employees are? Just corruption that cannot be accounted for

  28. Malgraysa
    April 8, 2016

    Artificial jobs, created for votes only, at the expense of the treasury. Only because private enterprise & industry can not be stimulated by Govt. The fiscal revenue base is being constantly eroded. Increasing VAT would be futile because it would drive already fragile sales down to such an extent that it becomes self-defeating. How long before Dominica can no longer meet its external debt obligations and its bonds will be just pieces of paper, to be collected for curiosity sake. Any professional soccer club would have parted with its manager long ago, but in our case the manager simply buys the necessary votes to stay in power. For how long? Till his team stops scoring and becomes irrelevant to the outside competition.

  29. pasport money
    April 8, 2016

    Staying so long before getting paid

  30. Lang Mama
    April 8, 2016

    Is Ambrose, Timothy, Salisbury candidate, Teacher Gloria, Alo all under the NEP nuh. Just asking wiii.

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      April 8, 2016

      Add the washed up doctor, ambassador-at-large to the list, and cousin Athena too!

      Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

    • Me
      April 9, 2016

      Sure they are but at different pay rates and in their case NEP stands for NEPOTISM.

    • Lang KAKA
      April 10, 2016

      Bae is the same thing I wondering

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