Government’s Social Safety Net payment team comprising representatives from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the National Civil Registration Authority, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Tourism and the hotel and hospitality sector have ended payments to hotels in the Western Area Urban and Rural Districts respectively. The past three working days (Friday, Monday and Tuesday 14, 17 and 18 August) have been peaceful with payments made to more than 900 beneficiaries from various establishments after employers were requested to submit names of their employees.
The Deputy Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, William Robinson, said he appreciates hotel and hospitality workers for their cooperation over the past three days. Government’s reason for the support is to ensure workers and their families are provided with the Le1,800,000 to support their homes and take care of their lost working time. The Deputy Minister said workers should cross check and verify payments made to them before leaving the payment site, and to also make sure the money is not shared with any member of the team or whosoever because the money is for them and their families.
He thanked government for considering the sector at a time like this and assured that the team will visit all hotels and other establishments nationwide with the press and in an open area to demonstrate transparency, adding every worker will benefit from the ongoing disbursement. The Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh, said the past three days have been going well with verifications and payments to workers whose names were on the list submitted by their employers, saying the ministry and government cannot manufacture the names but had to rely on the different employers to assist with that.
He said this is the first time the tourism sector has been singled out by government to benefit from the social safety net support, adding some establishments considered government requesting the list a witch hunt, citing that as why they failed to submit the full names of their staff. Jalloh said the process is sending signals to all proprietors and operators and management of all tourism establishments to ensure they regularise their status, saying moving forward they should expect to benefit from more opportunities. He said those that have proper documents stand to benefits from all government opportunities in the future at all tourism establishment hence there is every reason to regularise their documents.
The director said the payment team will proceed to the provinces for verifications and payment of workers whose names were submitted to them by their respective employers and that at the end of the entire process, they will be in a position to inform the public on the number of beneficiaries reached and the total amount disbursed.
During the payment and verification process, names of beneficiaries are called from the lists submitted by their respective establishments in the open and in the presence of all staff. Beneficiaries are required to either have their employment letter, national identification card, or any other form of identification, to be verified by their human resource unit. Alusine Kamara (Not his real name), staff at Radisson Blu hotel, confirmed that he received and signed for Le1.8 million, and thanked government for the help. He said he has worked for the past 20 years in different hotels in Freetown but had never witnessed government paying them because they were out of job as a result of a natural pandemic.
Kamara confessed that he is going to pay his debts to a neighbour because when they were out of work, he was optimistic and happy that he had a good neighbour to assist him financially, and promised to give the rest of the money to his wife for petty trading. According to gathered information, 190 workers benefited from Radisson Blu and Mammy Yoko Hotel.
By Mohamed Kabba