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BARATARIA/SAN JUAN MP Saddam Hosein said hundreds of his constituents had received no Salary Relief Grant, which was offered during last year's lockdown aimed at curbing the covid19 pandemic.
He was addressing a UNC virtual briefing on Wednesday.
While government ministers have repeated presented figures to argue many people have got grants, Newsday asked the UNC line-up (which included Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram and Chaguanas Mayor Faaiq Mohammed) if the Government's claims matched their own anecdotal experiences with their constituents.
Hosein said the UNC had raised this issue in the last budget debate.
"In the Standing Finance Committee I had raised several issues with respect to the Salary Relief Grant and the distribution of same, and also MP Davendranath Tancoo of Oropouche West, where we questioned there was an unaccounted over $90 million with respect to the Salary Relief Grant, which the Minister of Finance has yet to answer."
Hosein said the UNC had publicly asked members of the public if they had applied for this grant and whether they had received it or not.
"In under 24 hours we got about 3,000 responses where persons have indicated that they have yet to still receive the Salary Relief Grant.
"We must remember the policy of the Government at that time was that there was some level of urgency to provide persons with grants simply because they were off jobs for about three months.
"A year has passed and some of those persons have not got that grant and yet the Government comes with the exact same promise again this year with Salary Relief Grants."
He said he could offer anecdotal evidence that in his constituency hundreds of people had applied for the Salary Relief Grant, in addition to the Rental Assistance Grant, but had yet to receive a cent.
"That is something the Government continues to do, in terms of deny persons...state resources." He said there were "heavy" criteria for people to access the grants.
He said Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, at last Monday's UNC Virtual Report, said individuals have difficulty accessing the grant application forms online.
Newsday was unable to contact Finance Minister Colm Imbert for a response. He was due to hold a briefing on Friday.
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