Canal residents allege corruption in flood relief distribution

Nov 16, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – Scores of residents and farmers in Belle West, Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara (WBD) on Saturday morning took to the streets, as they protested alleged corruption in the distribution of flood relief grants.
While some fuming residents claimed that their names were replaced with other names but their contact information and address remains, others alleged that their names were completely removed from the list of beneficiaries for the flood relief.
One resident who only gave her name as ‘Devi’ told Kaieteur News, “…with my brother, they said that they would call you and register you with your ID card, with your phone number and address.”
According to ‘Devi’, “…on Friday, the person who in charge of sharing out the cheques when we gone to her and check, my brother phone number is correct with our address but a different name; Where that different name come from if somebody is not tampering with the cheque? My brother’s name is Suresh Narine and they had Surijpaul with some other title with the address and number”.
Pensioner Danmattie Singh, 64, complained to this newspaper with tears in her eyes.
She lamented, “me nah get husband and me come when they been a share out the money, me explain to them and nobody nah take heed to what I am saying. All my fruit trees and so on, dry up. (And) They said my name is not on the list”.
Mohammed Rasheed, 62 and Chairman of a local farming group told this publication, “I send in the names of all them people who get flood, cause we get three flood in four months. We dealing with sheer cash crops and we doing commercial crops and spending millions, they could come see but NAREI (National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute) and them in come and identify none of us. None a we nah get compensation.”
A 75 year old farmer who only gave his name as ‘Jagarat’ complained that over 10 acres of his farmlands were destroyed in the floods but his name was never added to the list of beneficiaries.
Another resident, Ayube Mohamed said, “Government is doing a wonderful job to reach out to people in the different programs, but the people who are in the place they are crooks and fraudsters. The Government needs to remove them. My house was inundated and my kitchen garden and so on was destroyed and I never got any compensation”.
Yvonne James also lamented that even though money and hampers were shared, she never benefitted.
“I have five children at home. They tell me how me nah wan nothing, God bless me.”
‘Nuna’ from Phase Two Belle West alleges, “the Regional officials are choosing the persons who they want to give; everybody was affected in some way, not in one way but they are claiming that the Minister told them to scratch people names off the list when their households and friends and family is benefitting”.
Devita Sugrim another of the residents that spoke with this publication explained that the residents are not protesting against the Government, but rather “corrupt” officials at the Neighbourhood Democratic Council.
She said, “Councilors came around like 10 times to collect names. A lot of people were left off. I don’t know why. Up to now we are waiting to hear from NAREI who said within two weeks’ time they would come to give us our cheques but they have to verify. I am a single parent and I had ducks and livestock, my washing machine, my chair and my wall divider was damaged because I was in water for two weeks”.
Rohit Ramnauth another of the affected residents who rears animals said that during the flood period, NAREI came to visit and investigate.
“I told them I lost eight sheep and 28 ducks. They promised to get back to me and they never did”.
Regional Chairman, Ayube Mohamed who was on the ground at the time, explained that while everyone in the community is now making claims of being affected as a result of the flood, the relief grants is limited to persons who specifically suffered damages.
The Chairman said, “…this exercise primarily deals with damages” and explained saying “we had GLDA (Guyana Livestock Development Authority) and NAREI who did an analysis and evaluation by visitation and submitted a list based on the damages and not on the perception of water just coming to your yard.”
That list, he said, was scrutinized and those people were beneficiaries of the payout.
He was adamant nonetheless, “I was made to understand that residents in this community are claiming that they had flood. We are not disputing that they have flood in their yards or their bottom house, but again this exercise is to look after damages. If there are no damages, then what do we compensate for?”
He used the occasion to also clarify that it was GLDA which was handling compensation related to livestock, while NAREI was looking into affected farmers.
In terms of household damages, Mohamed said he was not sure if any organization was catering to those losses.
The Chairman said that although residents are dissatisfied with the way the flood relief is being shared out, during the flood Ministers of the Government visited the community.
“So we understand clearly what happened during the rainfall. But we not only responded financially to the area, but we also sent in food and cleaning hampers during the flood and even exhausted excavating measures to mitigate flood effects,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, in response to the complaints of names being replaced, he said such issues have reached him from not only Belle West but across the Region.
According to Mohamed, “If they are claiming that their names were scratched off the list that would be after an evaluation was done to see if they qualified. I am not saying that is so, but if it happened, it can only happen that way.”
The Regional Chairman committed to collecting the names of complainants to investigate their claims and sought to assure that if there is enough evidence, the affected persons will receive their grants.

 

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