Minister Polak contacts AG

A portion of the money intended for welfare payments mysteriously vanished in 2014. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing (Sozavo) in 2014 collected money that was intended for welfare payments in 2015. At that time the ministry was run by Alice Amafo from the General Liberation and Development Party (Abop). Minister Cristien Polak has reportedly contacted Attorney General Roy Baidjnath Panday who will launch an investigation. The Sozavo minister strongly suspects that the money did not reach its destination but has not commented yet on the issue. The minister also has not disclosed how much money has vanished. The missing money was detected on Monday and officials immediately decided to put all payments on hold so that they could try to put the pieces together. The minister explained that this is the reason why the payment of general child allowance (AKB) has not taken place yet in some resorts of the Wanica District.

The money was used to make other types of welfare payments in 2014. It is still unclear what happened to the money. Due to the gap that was created in the budget, officials had to keep taking an advance to make the general child allowance payments. “A gap was detected and the AG will investigate what happened,” said Minister Polak. The general child allowance payments will take place within the next two weeks. Minister Polak recently met with Finance Minister Gillmore Hoefdraad to find a solution.