Walker
THE OFFICE of National Reconstruction (ONR) will today close off its verification of applications made by persons whose houses were damaged by Hurricane Ivan in September.
Danville Walker, chief executive officer at the ONR, gave the assurance to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson on Wednesday, during a meeting at Jamaica House. Mr. Walker said that once the process has been completed, the ONR would continue the issuing of cheques to beneficiaries next week.
He said verification had enabled the ONR to reclassify persons who were incorrectly categorised and that this represented savings for the ONR. Last weekend, at the Northern Caribbean University's (NCU) staff awards banquet in Mandeville, Mr. Walker disclosed that the verification of the claims submitted showed that 70 per cent of the claims, amounting to $80 million, were false.
APPROVAL GIVEN
He said that he was committed to ensuring that the reconstruction efforts were transparent.
Mr. Walker also told the prime minister that the ONR board had given approval for repair work to be carried out on approximately 250 schools across the island that were affected by the hurricane.
In addressing the issue of schools being used as shelters, the prime minister said the country would have to re-examine the issue, with a view of phasing out the practice.
He noted that the use of schools as shelters not only result in the need for signi-ficant repairs after a disaster, but that it also adversely affects the restart of the education process once the disaster has passed.
