'Not a single complaint' – Ablakwa challenges claims of SA evacuation payment shortfalls
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has challenged claims that some Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa received less than their approved allowances, saying his ministry has received no complaints in more than four months since the exercise began.
According to the minister, all 1,964 evacuees, including minors, received the GH¢5,000 reintegration package and GH¢500 transportation allowance.
He questioned why allegations of underpayment were emerging through a media organisation months after the beneficiaries received their money at the airport.
“For more than four months since the evacuation commenced, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received a single complaint,” he said.
Ablakwa was responding to a JoyNews report that at least three people contacted from the evacuation list claimed they received GH¢2,000 instead of the announced total allowance of GH¢5,500.
He said evacuees had been informed before leaving South Africa that each person would receive GH¢5,500. The information, he added, was repeated upon their arrival in Ghana.
The minister explained that beneficiaries received two envelopes at the airport and were encouraged to open them and verify the amounts. Journalists and bloggers were present, he said, with some recording evacuees counting their money.
Addressing the Ghanaian community in Ottawa, Canada, during an official working visit, Ablakwa argued that the public nature of the payments, coupled with the absence of complaints to the ministry, raised questions about the allegations.
“These stories do not add up. And they are calculated at probably discouraging us from always stepping in and rescuing Ghanaians from harm's way,” he said.
Although he acknowledged that he did not personally distribute the money, the minister defended the integrity of the officials involved, including personnel from the ministry’s Finance Bureau, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and National Security.
He expressed confidence that the officials would not exploit vulnerable evacuees who had experienced trauma in another country.
Ablakwa also described the payments as the first instance in which Ghanaians evacuated to the country had received both a reintegration package and a transportation allowance.
His response followed allegations by Minority MPs and opposition parties of an accountability deficit in the evacuation exercise.
Despite the criticism directed at him, Ablakwa pledged to continue supporting Ghanaians in distress abroad.
“But I give you one assurance that despite all the vilification, I remain fully committed to the welfare, the protection of the dignity and the rights of Ghanaians. I am not discouraged at all,” he said.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com« Previous |
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