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House clears mysterious compensation for families of Mahdia dorm fire victims
Kaieteur News – The National Assembly on Wednesday approved $350 million for the Ministry of Finance; part of which will be used to pay out compensation to the relatives of the 20 students who were injured and those who perished in the Mahdia dormitory fire on May 21, 2023
The House was at the time considering Financial Paper Number three in which government was seeking a total of $61 billion in supplementary funds.
Efforts by the Parliamentary Opposition to ascertain how much of the approved sum will be directed to the payout for the families of those victims were futile as the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh explained that those details were already in the public domain.
It was former Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence who questioned the 156 percent increase in funds being sought by the Ministry under the Public Financial Management Policies and Services. She pointed out that approximately $225 million was already allocated in this direction; however, details in the Financial Paper for supplementary funds indicated that an extra $350 million was requested.
To this end, Dr. Singh explained, “Under this additional amount is finances for the families of the girls who lost their lives in the Mahdia fire and those who were injured and legal judgment for which we have no control.”
The fire which gutted the Mahdia Secondary School’s female dorm. (Photos taken from News Room)
The Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Volda Lawrence requested a disaggregation of the sum for the specific allocation to the burn victims to be revealed and for the Minister to explain what criteria was used to determine the compensation package for the families. The Finance Minister however pointed out that he had no intention of repeating details that are already in the public domain.
“I think it’s been abundantly ventilated in the public that government has offered to provide some financial assistance and we have been providing that assistance. We made some emergency interventions at the time and so a part of this allocation is intended to meet those costs, or to recoup those costs that were incurred,” he explained.
Nevertheless, the Minister went on to point out that while the matter is of great public interest and has been the subject of numerous discussions, he will not be providing an answer to the question since the information is already public.
He said, “This matter has been the subject of a lot of discussion in the public domain and statements have been made by the Attorney General… and by the President. I don’t believe that there is a necessity and I have sir, no intentions of repeating what has already been said and is on public record as having been said by both the President and the Attorney General.”
It was reported that the Government of Guyana (GoG) has commenced the process of giving financial assistance to the relatives of the 20 children who died as a result of the horrific dormitory fire in Mahdia.
According to a document seen by this publication, each family will receive, if agreed, the sum of $5 million in financial assistance, which constitutes a settlement of all claims and causes of actions on account of all injuries resulting in death and not resulting in death, as a resulted of the fire.
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