The Lethem Citizens’ Committee (LCC) is calling for an investigation into the recent distribution of Rupununi flood relief funds, with one its members, Clairmont Lye, alleging a series of irregularities in the process—including concerns about the authenticity of some names of persons who received the relief.
In a letter published in yesterday’s edition of the Stabroek News, Lye said: “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’s public meeting on November 6.”
Lye said too that more than 100 valid names were removed from the list while other individuals who were on “high ground” were added to it.
When this newspaper contacted Regional Executive Officer (REO) for Region Nine (Upper Takutu/ Upper Essequibo) Ronald Harsawack, he said he was unable to speak. Subsequent efforts to contact him were not successful. However, previously, Harasawack had told Stabroek News that the regional administration was not responsible for distributing aid. He said too that he was unaware of the procedure for distributing flood relief.
The timing of the payout and the venue used has angered opposition parties and members of the public, who described it as a case of “elections bribery”. However, PPP/C campaign spokesperson Robert Persaud said the distribution of the aid was part of the government’s promise to its people after the flood in June but dissociated the party from the decision of where to distribute the flood relief. Subsequent-ly, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs said that it only distributed flood aid to Lethem residents following the PPP’s public meeting on Sunday upon the request of residents.
Persaud, in a release, indicated that the distribution of the funds was done in the vicinity of the public meeting site, but Lye said the funds were “brazenly disbursed in the upper floor of Freedom House in Lethem”.
He also rejected the explanation by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs that the funds were only distributed to residents upon request, querying how the money was able to be found so quickly on a Sunday. “My understanding is that the funds were lodged at the police station the day before, which is a clear indication of the intention to issue them at the PPP meeting on Sunday,” Lye said. He also said that not only Lethem residents received money there since the very first names called for relief were from St Ignatius.
Meanwhile, Lye questioned the authenticity of the names of the persons who received the $20,000 cash relief. According to him over 100 valid names were removed from the original lists after being approved by the assessment teams. “For instance, I was part of a team that found at least 14 households in Culvert City under water. Those names were submitted to the REO, yet none of those householders’ names was called,” Lye said. “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,” he charged.
“On behalf of the Lethem Citizens’ Committee (LCC), I therefore call for an investigation of this matter before elections,” he said. “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,” he said.
The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, in a release, had said that the cash relief exercise commenced on September 23 in Karasabai. It said it had also distributed aid in the North Rupununi and South Rupununi.
There were 1,089 households in total, covering 37 communities in the completed three sub-districts, who were given financial assistance in Region 9, it said. To identify these families from villages that are far removed from each other, aggravated by the flood itself, would require time and other resources, thus the perceived delay in the release of the cash relief, it added.
“The approximate number of households in Region 9 is about 3,089, and if this move were political in nature, then MoAA could have chosen all these households or even a majority of them to serve such an ulterior motive.
“The plight of the people is paramount to us, and we will not apologize if we help them in the direst time: when they need the government’s aid most, regardless of whether it is election time or not,” the release added.
