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The National Coordinator of the Office of National Security (ONS), Ishmael Tarawally, has revealed that all registered victims of the August 14 2017 flash floods and mudslide have been paid. Mr. Tarawally made the revelation at a press conference organized by ONS at its Tower Hill Headquarters on Friday 11th May 2018, and contradicted the on-going intrigues aimed at sullying the integrity of the institution.

According to him, the ONS has long been complimented by both the local and international communities for not just rapid response to natural disasters, but best performance.

He maintained that as a responsible institution, immediately the unfortunate incident occurred than the institution registered 1,905 victims at the first phase, but revealed that when verified later, it was then discovered that out of this number, 1, 840 were affected persons, while other unaffected people had taken the advantage to be part of that registration process.

Mr. Tarawally furthered that in the registration that followed the first phase; some 1,472 victims were recorded, noting that though the registration deadline was a 3 day period, yet the former government advised ONS to adopt a policy of inclusion rather than exclusion.

According to him, 3,312 victims in all were paid through the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank and each with a rescue package of Two Million, One Hundred Seventy-Two Leones (Le2, 172,000).

He added that of the 1,472 registered in the second phase, Sierra Leone Red Cross paid one 1000 victims, as the former government paid 472 victims, while DFID, UNICEF and other partner institutions took the responsibility of paying 1,840 victims.

After the registration process, Mr. Tarawally disclosed, 132 victims further showed up but it was discovered that some names were duplicated.
As recent as last week Friday, he said, the remaining 79 victims were paid at the ONS headquarters by officials from the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.