The disgraceful manner in which Deputy Director of School Security Stephen Plakaris has been treated in his attempt to receive payments due to him since January strongly suggests that there is a deeply-rooted problem in the ministry, when it comes to making payments to some of its personnel.

There can be absolutely no excuse for Plakaris, who has been on the job for several years, to be forced to resort to staging a one-man demonstration outside the Office of the Prime Minister. He wanted to draw attention to his plight of not having been paid money due to him, after apparently not receiving any response to telephone and written inquiries as to why his salary was stopped.

Although Plakaris is known to be politically active as a supporter of the Opposition Progressive Liberal Party, we absolutely refuses to believe that this is a case of political victimization, as has been suggested. If it is, then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham must launch an investigation into who is responsible for orchestrating this despicable act against a well-respected member of the Grand Bahama community.

One reason why we are inclined to believe that the treatment of Plakaris is not politically motivated, is that the Ministry of Education has a long history of not paying new teachers on time. In some cases, many months pass before they receive a paycheck. This has been the case under successive governments, and it is mind-boggling that the ministry that is responsible for educating the youth of this nation, cannot get its act together and correct this vexing problem.

We have over the years received various letters from teachers complaining about not being paid for months on end, but none has been more amazing than a letter we recently received from a teacher who had not been paid since last September. It is an unbelievable story for which there is no rational explanation, other than gross ineptness on the part of those who have responsibility for such matters in the Ministry of Education.

The teacher involved had been in the system for a number of years before accepting a position at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) last year. But she subsequently decided that this was not how she wanted to make a contribution to the education of our youth. She returned to teaching at one of the primary schools in Freeport last September, and at the end of the month when she did not receive her salary, she contacted the Ministry and informed them.

She also contacted the Bahamas Union of Teachers and spoke with Secretary General Belinda Wilson, who said that she would begin to work on getting the matter resolved. September gave way to October and she still did not receive any pay. November and December came and still no pay; so did January and February.

"Finally in March, just before school closed for Easter break, I was informed that my matter was resolved and that a voucher had been prepared for me, and that the funds would be deposited to my account in short order," this teacher wrote. "It is now mid-April and I have yet to see the funds that were promised."

Something is drastically wrong with this scenario. As this teacher noted, what is "so vexing about this situation is that it has gone on for years, and no one seems to have the will or desire to sort this whole mess out." It is long past time that somebody does. Enough is enough. That's precisely why Steve Plakaris staged his one-man demonstration.