The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I have a problem with the College of the Bahamas involving money and do not know who else I can turn to about this. This May, as part of the graduation proceedings, the College held an award ceremony for students that did particularly well in their respective schools. On May 24th, 2016, as the student graduating with the highest GPA, I was awarded the Associate of Applied Science Culinary Arts Award, which was donated by Bahamas Food Services and Bristol Wines and Spirits. I later found out, with everyone else, that there was a monetary portion to the award.

A small notice attached to a letter informed awardees that we should contact the College’s Business Office by the end of June to receive the monetary portion.

After returning from a trip in early June, I contacted the College. I spoke to people at the Business Office, but no one knew about the prizes. Someone gave me a number that I should call about it, but it connected me to an offshore bank that had no idea what I was talking about.

Trying the College again, they told me to go to Culinary & Hospitality Management Institute (CHMI) to ask about it there and I was informed that I should come back after June 30, not by the end of the month. I waited until July to try again. I tried a few different numbers, hoping to find out if anyone knew what I was talking about, but would simply get transferred a few times before reaching a number with no answer. Every few days, I would visit the College, trying to find someone to talk to in Accounts Payable and was eventually told to talk to Academic Affairs or to return to the Culinary side for more information.

I visited CHMI a number of times during this process. The person I spoke with confirmed that she had put through a request for the prizes and had sent emails back in May to various departments, like the Business Office, about it.

While I was speaking with her, she placed calls and sent the messages again. As two months had passed already, the messages would have either gone unnoticed or been forgotten. At this point, I was informed that other awardees had been having trouble getting their awards, too.

To make sure that the cheque had been made in the first place, I went to Bristol Wines and Spirits for more information. I was informed that, yes, the cheque had been sent in. They gave me the cheque number, said that it was dated May 11th, and gave me the cheque’s amount. However, instead of waiting to hear who the recipient was supposed to be, they had simply written the cheque to the College. A representative from Bristol stated that they do not interact directly with the students with awards like this and now that the cheque was sent in, it was out of their hands.

They didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that the money might never reach the intended person.

Before going on to Academic Affairs, I tried calling the Business Office again, using various phone numbers.

For days, the phone just rang or went to an unconnected voicemail. On July 19th, I finally got access to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and she already knew a bit about my problem. The office made a copy of my award’s letter and took some contact information from me. On the copy, I also included the cheque number, the date it was made, and who donated it. I have heard nothing since then and plan to start calling again soon.

Accounts Payable refuses to continue the process until I have confirmation that Academic Affairs saw and signed the cheque.

Honestly, I think that I’ve been led around by people that really just did not want to deal with me. Back in June, I was told the cheque would be good for six months. If it really was dated May 11th, I only have another three months to track it down.

At the time of this letter, I do not know how many other graduates successfully received their awards.

Whether or not anything comes of this letter, thank you for your time reading it.

ISABELLA PIERI

Nassau,

August 23, 2016.