Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) Director General Carol Coy says the fly in the ointment for contracted census takers yet to be paid remains incomplete visitation records which are a companion document to the questionnaires that were administered.

A visitation record is a documentation of all buildings and dwellings visited in enumeration districts. The control document also reflects the outcome of the interview, and has some basic information questions for answer by the census worker.

“The issue with payment is that census takers were advised
— it was in their contract, it was in their training
— that you are paid per completed and accepted questionnaire. So there is a process: the census taker does a questionnaire, it goes to the supervisor, the supervisor is supposed to review the questionnaire and then there is a process called synchronisation where it goes to the head office which now assesses the questionnaire,” Coy explained during last week’s sitting of the Jamaica Observer Press Club.

Statin’s Deputy Director General Leesha Delatie-Budair, in explaining further, said that a completed visitation record is what is needed in order for Statin’s in-house experts to check off the questionnaires.

“The visitation records help us to reconcile all of the buildings we would have identified in the enumeration district and did you go to all of them, so it is needed,” she said.

Coy elaborated further, “So when you come in house, the visitation records and your questionnaire must match, so that is a significant challenge.”

She said disgruntled workers have been contacting the entity using their Members of Parliament at times as their mouthpiece to query their payments.

“When checks are made there are still incomplete submissions. I cannot pay for a questionnaire that is not completed, so it’s getting them to correct it, but some have outright refused to correct. What we have done internally is, our technical support persons have been…remoting to the tablets and getting to the persons and walking them through,” Coy explained.

Coy, who said Statin is now also looking at what contributed to some of the issues seen with the visitation records, noted that “internally where we can correct without going back to the census taker, that is what we are doing”.

“That process is going to take much longer than if the census taker and the supervisor had done the right thing. What you have now is our own employees, apart from assessing the questionnaires, doing that and it takes a little while. They will get paid, if the questionnaire is accepted,” she added.

The 2022 Population and Housing Census, which began in September that year, envisioned the collection of data from all 14 parishes — 6,611 enumeration districts. The data collection process for the census was initially set to be completed in December 2022. However, after challenges with recruitment, a new date of March 2023 was set, but there have been further delays and the process is yet to be completed.

In March, ruffled census takers flooded Statin’s online platforms during a press briefing to air their grouses over unpaid funds.

Coy at the time said the processing of payments to workers has taken longer than anticipated “for several reasons, including the fact that some census workers have not completed the processes needed to facilitate payments”.

“Some census workers have expressed concerns regarding remuneration. With the completion of the main data collection by contract workers, efforts are now focused on the processing of all outstanding payments to census workers. For those yet to be compensated, the non and partial submissions or inconsistencies of the visitation record, which is a critical part of the data collection process, pose a significant challenge. Statin, however, has put in place internal measures to address this issue,” Coy said then.

She said that once visitation records are completed and tablets which were assigned to workers returned, all final payments will be made.