More than $81 m spent on flood relief

More than $81 million in flood relief cheques have been distributed to citizens following the October 19 floods which devastated parts of East and Central Trinidad but the social development ministry is now looking at how much of this money went to families in need and investigate suspected fraudulent cheques.

Since October 19, more than 6,200 cheques have been printed and distributed.

Newsday understands that multiple cheques which were processed by commercial banks were then flagged by the Central Bank as suspected fraudulent.

These issues were raised with ministry officials.

On Thursday, Newsday reported four ministry employees had been arrested on suspicion of distributing cheques to friends and family who were not affected by flooding.