Challenges faced by Welfare Benefits Board
The Welfare Benefits Board is carrying out the expedited Aswesuma programme amongst many challenges such as capacity shortcomings, officials told the Sunday Times, requesting not to be named.
The public had been inadequately educated, they conceded. The government had insufficient funds to fill this and other gaps so the community leaders, NGOs and others must help.
People did not realise they will be reevaluated every year and could lose the benefit if their financial situation improved. Others applied with two ID cards (old and new) or two addresses, to “trick” the system. These inconsistencies popped up as the process was digital. The ensuing investigations caused delays. “Then we get blamed when payments are late,” one official said.
People also sometimes split their families into two, hoping to get double payments. But the system didn’t work that way. “We have a quota for the number of people to pay,” the official explained. “When people split their families in two, they don’t get more money and also deprive another family from getting it.”
“This is a revolutionary change so of course it’s going to be messy initially,” he pointed out. “Media needs to emphasise the good, like how many people are being covered through Aswesuma that wasn’t included before”.
Meanwhile, divisional secretariat (DS) officials said the WBB gave a oneand-a-half-month deadline to finish all enumeration. It was the same for DS divisions with a few thousand applicants as it was for those with tens of thousands. They had to campaign and hire many enumerators quickly and were initially given incomplete information by the WBB.
“When we asked for more details about the process and timeline, we did get it,” one official said, also requesting anonymity. “For instance, we were pressured to finish the appeals process quickly but only got the relevant guidelines from WBB last week (the end of September). Thankfully, we had anticipated this and used similar guidelines to what was suggested.”
People thought Aswesuma was the same as Samurdhi. While the WBB had been urged to carry out a huge media campaign, there was not much beyond a gazette, the initial media release calling for applications and an advertisement.
“We had to enter most appeals ourselves because people don’t have IT literacy,” the official pointed out. And the deadline is just 20 days.
“People were shouting when they learned they weren’t selected,” she said. “I lost my voice having to face them. Enumerators had to fund their transport from their incentive. We were given training guidelines but had to organise it ourselves.”
Strengthening the social safety net was a key component of the IMF programme in Sri Lanka and Aswesuma needed to be expedited to meet deadlines. In light of this, the Sunday Times also found that the refusal of Samurdhi officers and Grama Niladharis to get involved had been a major challenge.