In a parliamentary address addressing growing public frustration over delayed pledged back pay for civil servants, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has pushed back against widespread claims that a lack of government funding is to blame for the outstanding payments, which the administration has committed to fully settling by the end of 2025. Instead, Browne pointed to a cascade of administrative and documentation issues as the core root of the ongoing delays, clarifying that only a tiny fraction of legitimate claims remain unprocessed.\n\nBrowne outlined multiple key problems that have slowed disbursement of the promised funds to public sector workers. Incomplete record-keeping across government ministries and departments, he explained, has led to major gaps in the payment rosters submitted to the national Treasury. Among the most high-profile omissions, the prime minister confirmed that dozens of active police officers were accidentally left off submitted lists, barring them from receiving the pay they are owed. Beyond accidental omissions, Browne added, widespread administrative errors and a flood of ineligible claims have further bogged down the processing system.\n\nThe prime minister specified exactly which groups do not qualify for the current round of back pay, including any individuals who left public sector employment before 2018, newly hired workers who have only recently joined the civil service, and people working on fixed-term government contracts. Contrary to public narratives that claim thousands of eligible workers are still waiting for payment, Browne emphasized that as of the day prior to his parliamentary address, the number of unresolved legitimate claims remained very small.\n\nBeyond processing issues, Browne publicly acknowledged long-running complaints about poor customer treatment from Treasury staff working on the back pay claims. Confirming reports that frontline Treasury employees have been dismissive or rude to claimants seeking updates on their payments, the prime minister said he has directly instructed the Financial Secretary to organize mandatory customer service training for all relevant staff to resolve this cultural issue.\n\nLooking ahead, Browne said the government is on track to clear all remaining outstanding claims within the next few months, and pushed back against critics who have attacked the administration’s handling of the back pay process. He stressed that his government is the first administration since Antigua and Barbuda gained independence to commit to bringing all public sector back pay completely up to date, reaffirming that the government has already set aside the full funding required to settle all eligible claims. “It’s not a matter of not having the monies to pay the back pay,” he reiterated. “We’re the first administration, certainly since independence, that would have brought back pay fully up to date.”
PM Browne Says Missing Back Pay Cases Stem From Documentation Gaps, Not Lack of Funds
