THE Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) cash payment for successful recipients will be suspended until next year, 2021.
Chair of the ESP and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MoFT) McKinnie Dentana confirmed this during the talk-back show on Sunday.
Dentana said given the Christmas break fast approaching, there would be a shortage of staff especially officers who are responsible for those payments as they go on holiday.
He said not only that, they want to ensure the payments are managed well and are used up according to their intended purposes.
“Given Christmas is just around the corner, we want to ensure the payments are well managed and so we would like to release them after Christmas otherwise they are misused during Christmas,” he said.
However, he said whilst cash payment will be put to a halt, delivery of supplies to recipients will continue.
Meanwhile, he said last week, there were lots of recipients coming in and signed off their offer and contracts and stated receiving their payments, equipment according to their various projects.
By IAN M.KAUKUI
Newsroom, Honiara
