Feb. 13, 2003 – Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg wants to hear from V.I. government employees who are experiencing problems with payroll deduction payments for such things as child support, loans and credit union deposits.
"When money is deducted from a paycheck, it should be immediately transferred where it is supposed to be," Donastorg said in a release issued on Thursday. "There should not be more than a 24-hour delay in this process."
Instead, he said, "it is often taking as long as two or three weeks for the Finance Department to pay the parties." Because of such delays, he said, people's credit can be damaged.
Donastorg, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the Legislature's Post Audit Division personnel would be meeting this week with the director of central payroll in an effort to determine whether "this is a systemic or a cash-flow problem" and, in either event, how it can be resolved.
Some government employees utilize payroll deduction as a convenience, he said, but "many have no choice and are left holding the bag when the government fails to pay on time."
The most serious problems, Donastorg said, are with delays in the transfer of funds to the V.I. Justice Department's ' Division of Paternity and Child Support. "Such a situation can lead to children not receiving the financial resources they are entitled to, despite the best efforts of their parents," he said in the release.

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