The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs (MoAA) is denying allegations of irregularities in the distribution of Rupununi flood relief funds and said that discrepancies in the list of persons eligible for aid are currently being addressed.
The MoAA also said that only those households that “were severely affected by the flood” would be getting aid.
Recently in a letter to the editor, Clairmont Lye, on behalf of the Lethem Citizens’ Committee (LCC), had called for an investigation into the recent distribution of Rupununi flood relief funds, citing a series of irregularities in the process—including concerns about the authenticity of some names of persons who received the relief.
The MoAA, in a letter which is published in today’s Stabroek News, sought to address several of the issues Lye raised including the authenticity of the names on the list. “The ministry issued money to persons on the list, which it had received from the region. But like in any exercise of this nature omissions may occur,” the MoAA said. According to the ministry, it subsequently received an additional list of persons prior to departing for George-town which it is currently reviewing. This list, the MoAA says, includes residents from Tabatinga and Culvert City.
In questioning the “authenticity of the names the persons who received the $20,000 cash relief”, Lye alleged that over 100 “valid names” were removed from the original list after being approved by the assessment teams. He said too that persons were added to the list instead. “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.
Last Sunday, the PPP/C held a public meeting in Lethem during which the party’s regional headquarters was utilized to pay persons $20,000 in cash as 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. Subsequently, the MoAA said it only distributed flood aid to Lethem residents following the PPP’s public meeting on Sunday upon the request of residents.
Lye had rejected the MoAA’s explanation that the funds were only distributed to residents upon request, querying how the money was able to be found so quickly on a Sunday. However, in response, the MoAA said that cash relief distribution on November 6 was scheduled to commence at St Ignatius for Central Rupununi and November 7, for Lethem residents and consequently money was brought in for this purpose. The MoAA said that it was ready to release the money at St Ignatius but that this was changed owing to requests from several persons at the rally that they be given their relief after the event. “Thus, only the Lethem residents were given their relief there. Officers from the Amerindian Affairs then travelled to St Ignatius, Quarrie, Moco Moco, Napi and Parishara to distribute the cash relief,” the MoAA added. The ministry said if the names of any non-Lethem residents were called at this forum, it was an “inadvertent mistake”.
One Lethem resident, who requested anonymity, said that the flood relief was shared out to residents “in the midst of rally” and said that this should not have been done. “I didn’t turn up at the rally because I didn’t think it was the right place for them to give flood relief,” he said. Saying that he was not a PPP/C supporter, the resident said that it would have “looked very bad” if he had turned up to collect $20,000 at such a forum.
However, on Tuesday last, the resident said, he received a phone call asking him to go to the Regional Democratic Office (RDC) to collect the flood relief. “I went and collected it there,” the resident said, adding that this was the location that should have been used “in the first place”.
Meanwhile, the resident indicated that several persons who had been affected– especially those in Tabatinga and around the market area had said that they had not received aid. But when they raised the matter, they were told that the officials distributing the flood relief were doing so based on a list that had been sent from Georgetown.
The MoAA, in a recent release, had said that the cash relief exercise commenced on September 23 in Karasabai and 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, which received 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,” it added. “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 said.
