By Staff Reporter
Two years have passed since a fire, deliberately set, tore through the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory in Region Eight, killing 20 children in the dead of night. Nineteen girls and a five-year-old boy were lost in a blaze that devastated an entire nation and shattered Indigenous families. But while survivors continue to grieve and families pursue justice through the courts, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) has done nothing with nearly $30 million raised in the name of these victims.
Local newspapers have reported that the PSC’s own 2024 records confirm $29,941,375 was collected in donations following the fire. Yet, not a single dollar has been disbursed to help the grieving families or support survivors still grappling with trauma. This is not incompetence, this is indifference, greed, and moral bankruptcy.
At the helm of this disgrace was former PSC Chairman Komal Singh, who has offered no meaningful explanation for the Commission’s stunning inaction. When questioned, Singh had the audacity to shrug off responsibility, conveniently passing the issue to his successor. Current PSC Chairman Gerald Gouveia Jr. has now promised to “prioritize the matter” but stopped short of condemning his predecessor or offering a timeline for action. This isn’t leadership, it’s damage control.
Meanwhile, families are still burying their pain. Survivors, mostly children from Indigenous communities, are left to navigate trauma, systemic neglect, and ongoing legal battles. Some parents allege they were pressured into signing hush-money settlements, while others are still waiting for justice from a state that failed to protect their children in the first place. And now, the very Commission that pledged to support them has chosen silence and self-preservation over compassion.
It should be noted that the PSC raised this money off the backs of dead children. Corporate suits stood in front of cameras, pledged solidarity, and then walked away. Not one scholarship. Not one trauma counselling initiative. Not one direct grant to a grieving parent. Just press releases and photo ops.
If these were children from the coastland, from affluent families or private schools, would $30 million be sitting idle in a bank account two years later? Or is it because the victims were Indigenous, poor, and politically inconvenient that this shameful neglect persists?
It’s time the PSC answers for its actions, or lack thereof. Where is the money? Who held the account? Why has no public report been issued? Why, on the second anniversary of one of the country’s worst national tragedies, are we still asking these questions?
The Commission must release a full forensic audit of the fund and issue a formal public apology to the families. Anything less is complicity in the cruelty. If the PSC cannot fulfill its most basic moral obligations, it should be dissolved and replaced with a body that understands duty, transparency, and human decency.
Two years. Twenty children. Thirty million dollars. And still, nothing.
Source: Credible Sources
