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2nd September, 2010
ZACK from Tenom is appealing to the relevant authorities to improve the financial aid handover system in order to avoid future problems.
This appeal comes as a result of the changes in the recent handover distribution venue that was not very efficient and inconvenient for the financial aid recipients especially the senior citizens.
“Today (Sept 1), we were supposed to receive the aid money at Sri Antanom Hall at around 9am. Many of the recipients who live far away have already arrived to wait since 7am. But because the hall was in use, we were ordered to go to the Tenom Open Market Hall at around 8am,” said ZACK.
ZACK claimed that as soon as they had arrived at the second venue, they were ordered again to go to the Tenom Welfare Office instead. The excuse they were given was that there were no tables prepared.
“It was a messy situation since we had to move to three different places and we had to walk under the hot sun…Those places were certainly not too far to walk to but they should think about the recipients, especially the senior citizens,” she added.
ZACK also claimed that the condition at the Welfare Office was very crowded and uncomfortable. Many had to stand at the doorways because there were not enough seats and people were worried that they would not hear their names being called out by the Welfare staff on duty.
“Maybe the Welfare Office has their reasons for what happened…But they should resolve it in a way that should not cause inconvenience to the recipients; they should plan properly and have a backup instead of doing everything last minute,” said ZACK, who managed to claim her aid money at around 12.30pm.
A Tenom District Welfare officer, when contacted, said that the matter was unavoidable and that they did their best to find a solution on behalf of the recipients.
She said, “The handover was supposed to have been performed at Sri Antanom Hall but due to unavoidable reasons, the request to use the hall was not approved. We were only informed of the situation at the last minute so we received orders to use the Tenom Open Market Hall instead.”
“However, because it was a Wednesday and the tamu was ongoing so it became very crowded; added to that no tables and chairs were available so we had no choice but to ask the recipients to move to the Welfare Office,” she explained.
The officer further explained that the Welfare Office was too small to handle the amount of recipients which is why the handover was usually performed at the Sri Antanom Hall, but due to the circumstances they had to perform the handover at the Welfare Office in the end.
“The department apologises for any inconvenience and hope that the recipients understand our situation as well,” she said, before explaining that the Welfare Office had already asked the recipients to open their account books and give their account numbers to the Welfare Office in order to speed up the process.
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