Waiting on GovernmentNovember 28, 2011Dear Sir,Many people have been upset by Butterfield Bank’s new system upgrade. While my business has been inconvenienced by this change, I was able to sort it out with two visits to the bank and a few phone calls. Thank you to Butterfield Bank for straightening things out.The purpose of this letter is to bring to people’s attention the Bermuda Government’s new system upgrade and the lack of concern they have for paying its vendors.I am a Government vendor and I have been waiting for several payments some as far back as June 2011. I have called the responsible departments to inquire about the payments and each time I have been told that they have submitted the payments on their end. However, they are unable to tell me about the status of the payment because of the system change. So I called the Accountant General’s office because surely they should have some answers. They told me to call the individual paying departments (which I had already done). On another occasion, when I called the Accountant General’s Office, someone told me that the payments “should be trickling in soon”. That was almost three weeks ago and I am still waiting.None of the Government departments have been able to give me any concrete answers on when I can expect to be paid. However, they are quick to add late fees and send threatening letters when social insurance and taxes have not been paid. Now that it is time to licence commercial vehicles, we will be refused re-licence unless the social insurance is paid in full. So I want to know “How are we supposed to pay the Government when the Government hasn’t paid us?”STILL WAITING FOR PAYMENTPembroke