The Ministry of Social Development and Family Services (MoSDFS) has received more than 4,000 applications for flood relief grants since October and has distributed roughly 90 cheques to date.
This is according to MoSDFS Minister Donna Cox who told Guardian Media that few cheques were distributed because of the vetting necessary for the applications.
“We have found some discrepancies in some of the applications and that would slow down the process where there are some persons (who) applied more than once,” she said.
“As a matter of fact, we found one person who applied 70-something times. I do not know if it was a mistake or if they didn’t understand.”
She said other applicants applied multiple times using their middle names. She said there were also several instances of information being omitted from the forms.
“So the ministry is calling them to get that information. But the staff has been processing it. Some persons have been applying electronically so that has helped us to fast-track the process,” she said.
Due to this, Cox said she was not able to give a timeline of when distributions could be expected to be completed. Cox was unable to give a monetary value for the cheques distributed so far but said it will be provided later in the week.
