“The grant for needy and low-income families by the World Bank-funded Ministry of Social Affairs has disappeared and has not been handed over to its beneficiaries and the ministry has not responded to any of the questions addressed to it,” Ismail Dabara, media officer for the Ismail Dabara Monitor, said in a statement to JDd Tunisie on Tuesday, 16 2021.
“Minister of Social Affairs Mohamed Trabelsi has broken his promise to disburse the special grant for needy families (180 dinars) and low-income people (300 dinars) in conjunction with Eid al-Adha, causing great suffering to tens of thousands of families who were counting on the holiday grant and other commitments,” the Observatory said in a blog post posted on its official Facebook page.
The Observatory expressed surprise that the grant was not disbursed to these groups, despite the fact that the total amount of grants was allocated by the Bank as part of a soft loan funded by the World Bank to “contribute to the financing of the social protection project to urgently address the Corona pandemic” of 300 million dinars, which was the subject of law 19/2021 approved by the House of Representatives in 10 April 2021.
He had already called for an emphasis on the need to disburse the funds allocated within the specified sections. He explained to the public that the total amount of the loan covers three main components, the most important of which is “financing remittances for poor families and low-income families” ($245 million), of which $100 million is allocated to an exceptional grant for about 1 million families (valued between 180d and 300d).
The Observatory condemned the response of the Minister of Social Affairs in the text of the communication not to respond to our application for access to the claim because his ministry did not comply with the subsidies provided for at the heart of the loan agreement between the Tunisian state and the World Bank on April 12, 2021 (in the first component: $100 million spent in direct subsidies to low-income families (300 d) and needy families (180 d).
He noted that no one guarantees that the resources allocated to direct subsidies to citizens still exist and have not been diverted entirely or in part to another destination.
The Observatory said it would be moved to take all necessary legal action if the grants were not handed over to its beneficiaries next week.
Translated by Rifi-JDD
