Aftermath of December 7 disasters |19 December 2023

PS Perine accompanied by Ms Morin during the press conference yesterday (Photo: Sunny Esparon)

One-off R25,000 payment to be allocated as soon as possible

By Sunny Esparon

The Agency for Social Protection (ASP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs have stated they are working as fast possible to allocate the sum of R25,000 to families affected by the December 7 disasters.

The one-off payment per household was announced by President Wavel Ramkalawan in last week’s press conference at State House.

Yesterday the two government entities elaborated on how the payment will be done.

In a press conference at the ASP headquarters, Oceangate House, the principal secretary for the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, Kevin Perine, said the ministry’s responsibility was to collect information and organise files for each house.

The files will then be remitted to ASP to facilitate payment.

“We are compiling all the information. We are working with the two centres set up in Cascade and Beau Vallon to make sure there are no duplications. The files are then prepared by our secretariat. This is to make sure that everyone gets their allocation as soon as possible,” said PS Perine.

A thorough check of all the names of persons residing in a house is being done to ensure there is no abuse. The information collected, such as each individual’s detail, will be firstly checked at the ministry and then cross-checked with the ASP list.

PS Perine said to facilitate payment, the residents need to provide correct information such as ID and bank account, in a timely manner.

For her part, chief executive for ASP, Brenda Morin, stressed that “the verification is really strict to make sure that a household is paid once”.

She added there are other measures and internal verification methods in place, to detect if someone has been paid. When a person’s name is verified and approved, it will be forwarded to the financial institution for payment. Those without a bank account are being encouraged to open one promptly to facilitate payment. However, necessary arrangement will be made for those who do not have a bank account.

Regarding where the actual money will come from, Ms Morin said this is an ongoing discussion with the head of finance, but “for now it is already touching the budget of ASP”.

With regard to the government’s second engagement, which is repair or reconstruction of damaged houses, PS Perine reiterated individuals can start bringing their invoices for damaged windows and doors. He said this will be cross-checked with the Seychelles Infrastructure Agency to prevent abuse.

“The government has also made a commitment to help those whose houses have really been destroyed with a sum of up to R1 million for repairs. More details will be provided later,” said Mr Perine.

The Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs has reiterated the one-off R25,000 payment was not related to any additional monetary assistance provided by government.