PM: Prosecution for covid19 fraudsters

ANYONE caught making a fraudulent claim for relief during the covid19 crisis will face the full brunt of the law just as fraudsters were prosecuted for false claims during the Greenvale flooding, the Prime Minister warned.

“I would be very disappointed if we have to invoke law enforcement against the local smartman or smartwoman,” Dr Rowley told Thursday’s post-Cabinet briefing.

He explained that the relief measures were a stretch for the country to offer. Recipients will have to sign a statutory declaration as to their circumstances, a document which could serve as the basis for legal action against fraudsters, he said.

“It is not Christmas Eve. There is no Santa Claus here. We are trying to save our national situation given the abrupt entry of the virus. Only cash can move through the system.”

Rowley said the Government is aiming to make cash available at all levels of the society, even as he admitted such relief will never be enough and as TT walks a tightrope.

Minutes earlier, Social Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, said the social relief package for the next three months of the covid19 pandemic will amount to $100 million.

This sum is on top of existing social support, which itself will be increased.

The new initiative also included the issuance of a $510 food card to families of each pupil in the National School Feeding Programme, to be topped each month, she said. The initiative will be launched with all 41 MPs each receiving 50 food cards to distribute, totalling about 2,000 food cards.

Robinson-Regis said after the initial handout, other recipients would each receive their food card from their local councillor. She said existing food-card holders would not get the extra sum representing the provision of school meals, although the existing food card entitlement would be increased in its own right, according to family size as previously announced.