An audit report published by the Auditor General's Office (AGO) has shown USD 324,000 from the income support allowance has been lost to fraud.
The audit report for the income support allowance project states some individuals had taken income support allowance by submitting false documents. The report states USD 14,000 has been recovered and the rest of the stolen funds were missing as of December 2020.
In the report, the AGO urged the Ministry of Economic Development to recover the missing funds as soon as possible. The statistics from the Ministry of Finance show USD 24.4 million was disbursed to 21,258 citizens. The allowance was disbursed for individuals who requested the income support allowance in December 2020. The allowance was previously disbursed on three rounds; the first round from April, May, and June 2020; the second round from July, August, and September 2020, and the last round from October, November, and December 2020.
The government introduced a monthly income support allowance of USD 323 as compensation to cover the essential expenses of individuals whose employment was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The income support allowance was provided for individuals who had been either dismissed or suspended from their jobs without pay, as well as employees who had been sent on no-pay leaves and employees whose monthly wages had been reduced below USD 323 as a result of the pandemic.