…Regional Coordinator says distribution exercise not completed
Approximately 4,000 households in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) have not received the $25,000 COVID-19 cash grant, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul said.
Mahipaul said that those who have not received the cash grant reside in communities perceived to be stronghold of the Opposition.
However, the Regional Project Coordinator, Anjani Seebaran told Village Voice News that the distribution exercise has not concluded in the district.
Describing the distribution of the COVID-19 cash grant in the district as an abysmal failure, Mahipaul told Village Voice News on Thursday that the Region first received 37,500 envelopes containing $25 000 each, and after they were distributed there was a second disbursement of approximately 5,950 envelopes, but those were also exhausted.
“The project apparently has ended in the Region with approximately 4000 households not in receipt of the Covid-19 Cash relief grant. Majority of the households are from Parfaite Harmonie whom not only have not received the cash grant but they are also not in receipt of the pink slip. About 1,000 households around the Region have pink slips but there is right now no guarantee that they will get the money that they are entitled to,” the Regional Parliamentary Representative explained.
Mahipaul said he has been inundated with complaints, which suggest that the distribution exercise lacks transparency, and is intended to sideline supporters of the Coalition.
“Communities perceived to be aligned to the PPP are not subject to meticulous criteria as those perceived to be aligned to the APNUAFC. I am told that once you are from a PPP area all you have to do is show your ID card and you will get the money but if you are from an APNUAFC area you have to show your kitchen, bedroom and living area. Where there are two or more households in one house the teams have to see two or more kitchens before one family gets the money and the others get the pink slip,” he explained.
In Wakenaam, the distribution team abandoned the house to house visit and assembled at one location, Mahipaul said.
“Residents of the island had to go to that location with their ID cards and get the money. This method allowed multiple persons from the same household to get more than one envelope. Because the persons aligned to this project are active PPP activists, it is riddled with heavy politics and skullduggery. I am told that persons have also received monies from the regional office and not their homes,” Mahipaul said.
But Seebaran, who appeared tightlipped when contacted by Village Voice News on Thursday, rebutted the claims by Mahipaul that the distribution exercised has been completed.
“We haven’t completed as yet. What happen is that we are waiting on the police because they started their Christmas duties, and as soon as they are settled, they will give us the remainder of ranks that they have. So we haven’t completed as yet,” Seebaran explained.
She explained too that though distribution officers have visited all of the communities in the Region, there is need to do a second sweep to cater for those persons who were not at home at the time of the initial distribution.
“The entire Region is actually completed but because persons weren’t home…we don’t want to put them at a disadvantage, it means therefore that we take their telephone numbers from neighbours and in some cases we don’t have a telephone number but we have a lot number, so we go back to them,” she further explained.
However, Mahipaul believes that there is urgent need for a forensic audit to be done on the distribution exercise.
Incoming Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), David Patterson has signaled his intention to have the Office of the Auditor General conduct an audit of the exercise to determine whether there was fair distribution across the country.
