Dear Editor,
I would like to add to previous reports and letters in the media on the contentious subject of the recent distribution of flood relief funds in Lethem.
To my knowledge, all the names of flood relief victims were submitted to the Regional Executive Officer (REO) by early July this year. It is therefore more than perplexing that disbursement to these persons should have taken as long as four months to be implemented, and that this exercise should just happen to coincide with the PPP/C public meeting on November 6. Next, the party’s campaign spokesman has been reported as disassociating the party from the decision of where to distribute the flood relief. How can we believe this when all of us in Lethem know the relief funds were handed out in the property of the PPP/C in Lethem?
The spokesman also implies that distribution of the funds was done in the vicinity of the public meeting site. The most charitable comment that can be made on this is that the Minister was being at least disingenuous. I repeat – the relief funds were brazenly disbursed in the upper floor of Freedom House in Lethem, not near the compound.
The spokesman goes on to say that “… the public officers should have responded to the villagers’ appeal to … go to another venue within Lethem.” (SN, Nov 9). The REO disputes this statement in his comment that the regional authorities were not involved in the process!
Then there is the controversial issue regarding the authenticity of the names of persons who received the $20,000 cash relief.
I understand that a total of over 100 valid names were removed from the original lists. I say “removed” because I know that lists of affected persons were presented to the REO by persons who did the assessments. For instance, I was part of a team that found at least fourteen households in Culvert City under water. Those names were submitted to the REO, yet none of those householders’ names was called. But even if it were possible for some persons to have been omitted in error, how is it conceivable that several persons who were living on high ground and who were not flood victims, could be added to the assessment lists? I know of one case where beneficiaries included four relatives of a party supporter working in the administration office.
Their names were not on the list approved by the village Toshao, and submitted to the REO. This is a case of flagrant abuse of public funds and represents fraud at some level in the system.
More recently, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs is supposed to have said in a release that the funds were distributed to Lethem residents upon the request of residents. So where were those monies found from so quickly on a Sunday? My understanding is that the funds were lodged at the police station the day before, which is clear indication of the intention to issue them at the PPP meeting on Sunday. The statement that, “Thus, only the Lethem residents were given their relief there” and St Ignatius and other villages later, is inaccurate. The truth is that the very first names announced were persons living in St Ignatius. And the announcer expressed his displeasure with persons present who made objections to the first two names called. This matter has engendered considerable anger among Lethem residents, even among fair-minded PPP party supporters.
On behalf of the Lethem Citizens’ Committee (LCC), I therefore call for an investigation of this matter before elections. Prosecutions should be made if fraud is discovered in the abuse of public funds. Undeserving persons should be made to return the money given to them. Most important, however, the LCC insists that every single person who was a flood victim, and whose name was on the original list, should receive the relevant compensation.
Yours faithfully,
Clairmont Lye