Residents who received cheques from the government through certain economic stimulus initiatives should quickly report how they spent the money, Premier Andrew Fahie said last week.
“I want to remind the recipients of [some of] the economic stimulus packages that when they received the funds, they committed to providing statements to confirm how they utilised the funds they were provided and the impact this funding support had on their ventures,” he said during a press conference on May 26. “Do not delay in sending this information back to the ministries so they could close out their reports.”
During the hour-long press conference — his second in six days — Mr. Fahie also provided a brief update on the controversial farming and fishing stimulus programme, which he said is under investigation after a partial list of recipients leaked and circulated via WhatsApp in recent weeks.
Though he defended his administration’s stimulus measures, he went on to say that the pandemic “exposed” issues in government’s record-keeping systems, including the list of farmers and fishers in the territory.
“Preliminary facts show farmers and fishers were not on the list though they’ve been doing it for many years,” he said. “More will be said on this when the ongoing investigation by the government is completed.”
Mr. Fahie added that he is not involved in the investigation.