A tale of two handouts
Handling money can be tricky, but dealing with lots of money incurs a formidable risk to reputation and of putting one in trouble with the law.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused so much hardship for many millions who have either lost their jobs or been furloughed indefinitely. With no end in sight for the economic stagnation, people with little or no cash tucked away, who suddenly found their salaries had trickled to a halt, have desperately looked to the government for help.
The 5,000-baht handouts marked the government’s latest relief effort targeting people not in the mainstream workforce whose lives have been turned upside down as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The government is now invoking an executive decree to procure an unprecedented trillion-baht loan to widen the base of the handout recipients to cover 16 million people.
The 5,000 baht has steadily been wired to accounts of recipients, although the method of distribution has been criticised as flawed and complicated for those not technology savvy.
Accessing the Finance Ministry’s website to fill out an electronic form and formalising registration needed to obtain the handouts proved too intimidating a task for a lot of people.
After the registration came the moment of truth. Many came away disappointed that the artificial intelligence employed to screen potential recipients had rejected some of the people in most need of the aid money, such as workers in hotels shuttered because of the absence of tourists.
The spotlight was on the Finance Ministry last week where many people rejected in the screening process gathered and demanded an explanation from officials. Tempers flared when no officials appeared to speak to them. Anger turned into despair when one woman swallowed rat poison outside the ministry in protest of what she claimed was her being neglected by the government.
She was rushed to hospital and was later declared to be recovering. The ministry ran a check which confirmed she was entitled to receive the cash handout which was to be paid over three consecutive months starting last month.
A political source said the growing frustration in some quarters with the way the handouts were being handled provided a perfect opportunity for government opponents to go on the offensive and mount a smear campaign.
It was reported that a taxi driver who joined complainants outside the Finance Ministry was a “regular” at anti-Prayut government rallies.
The man was seen trying to climb a gate at the ministry last week to underscore his plight. He claimed he had registered for the aid and been promised the cash handout which never came. He demanded the money be placed in his hand right there outside the ministry.
Checks found he was a few days away from the money being transferred into his account.
A senior figure at the Finance Ministry in charge of the handouts is believed to have instructed officials not to meet complainants, fearing hundreds if not thousands would descend on the ministry seeking help if they did so.
However, that instruction, if issued, cast the government in a bad light, especially with
regard to its pledge that said “no one will be left behind”.
To control the damage, Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana immediately sent his secretary Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana to talk to the complainants and calm a volatile situation.
By midweek, tents were pitched on a footpath outside the ministry with some 20 officials on hand to help complainants overcome obstacles they had in registering for the handouts or appealing against their rejection.
Mr Thanakorn said some complainants experienced technical glitches, while others pressed a wrong button on the website and could not correct the problems on their own.
At the same time, the Progressive Movement co-founded by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the former leader of the dissolved Future Forward Party (FFP), kicked-off a twoday fund-raising campaign last week to help people affected by the pandemic.
Organisers of the campaign, which reportedly raked in more than seven million baht through online music performances, announced recipients did not have to be screened to get the money, in what was an apparent attempt to upstage the government’s handout scheme.
The Progressive Movement said it planned to give out 3,000 baht to help around 2,400 people. However, more than a million were thought to have applied for the money.
Critics said a lack of a clear-cut screening criteria made this relief offer questionable. The fund money was also allegedly deposited into the bank account of Pannika Wanich, the former FFP spokeswoman and also cofounder of the movement, which could land her in trouble with the Revenue Department and cost her dearly.