The Board of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) will meet today to decide its next move following a sick-out staged by staff last week in response to a freeze on payments they were promised.

This newspaper understands that the legality of the payments and whether they should be retroactive, are the issues that the board will examine today.

A source told this newspaper that while it seems as though staff were written to and told of the payout there was no board resolution and no established basis that dictated the payouts.

Transport Minister Robeson Benn after admitting to halting the payout to the staff a week ago, cited the authority’s ability to pay as something which had to be considered.

He also said that the payments would have had to be approved by him as well as Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, and this had not been done as he only learnt that a payout was about to be made, during an unplanned visit to the authority.

The source said that as a semi-autonomous agency, even though the authority recently benefited from monies from government, the scheduled modernization programme also has to be catered for.

These and other issues are to be discussed when the board meets today.

All of the Air Traffic Controllers have since returned to work.