KINGSTON, Jamaica — HEART Trust/NTA says that following investigations into the 2019 HOPE Youth Summer Work Programme, it was revealed that up to last week a total of 131 of the more than 16,600 participants had not yet received payment of their stipends due to technical issues with banking platforms, inaccurate banking information and non-submission of time cards.

The HOPE programme issue was highlighted in a Sunday Observer article as several youngsters who said they participated in the programme complained that they had not received payment.

Following ongoing discussions with financial institutions and participants since July to have these issues resolved, HEART said a formal meeting was convened on Wednesday, December 11 with the main financial institution with which the challenges were associated.

Subsequent to this meeting, the Trust said it took the decision to settle outstanding stipend obligations via cheque payments for participants experiencing repeated and unresolved challenges with their banking credentials.

HEART noted that these cheques are now available for collection and the affected participants have been contacted via telephone to advise them of same.

To date, of the 131 outstanding payments, HEART said 80 have been prepared and relevant participants contacted, an additional 26 cheques are ready today, and the remaining 10 will be prepared soon.