The group will identify poor and marginalised people and those who are in high need of support during the Covid-19 battle. Heng Chivoan
The Ministry of Economy and Finance has created an adhoc working group to manage social support mechanisms to help impoverished people and marginalised groups during the fight against Covid-19.
The group will be dissolved when the virus situation ends.
According to the document signed by the minister on Friday, the group has components from 14 ministries lead by Nguon Sokha, the ministry’s secretary of state.
The document states that the group will identify poor and marginalised people and those who are in high need of support during the Covid-19 battle. The group has to plan the measures and action plans to intervene and support the target groups, solve the impacts on them, and support their livelihood.
The ministry also said officials in the relevant ministries and institutions need to cooperate with the group for necessary work.
“The ad-hoc group has the right to invite relevant private sector members to any necessary meeting, and use the ministry’s stamp to complete their jobs. The working group’s tasks are valid until the Covid-19 campaign is over,” the ministry said.
But the document did not mention the budget to be used to support those in need, or whether the budget was from donations or the government.
Ministry spokesperson Meas Sok Sensan could not be reached for comment.
The Ministry of Planning’s director of Identification of Poor Households, Keo Ouly, who is also a member of the working group said on Sunday that as it was just created, he did not have further information. However, he said that the group will hold its first meeting on April 9.
He said the goal of the group was to help those who are poor, the vulnerable, and jobless during the Covid-19 period.
“We will look in general at the poor groups, the first groups that we will help. They have a low income. I cannot say more than this because the group is just created and no meeting has been held. We will have information after the April 9 meeting,” he said.
Affiliated Network for Social Accountability executive director San Chey told The Post on Sunday that a committee to fight the Covid-19 virus was already established, and this group should not be created.
He said the exiting group should work with local authorities and they could get information on the vulnerable groups and those that should be supported.
“If we have another ad-hoc group, it will make the groups keep increasing. We should strengthen and divide responsibility with the existing group.
“That includes dividing responsibility and adding more tasks to make them better communicate with local authorities. Now, there are sub-national mechanisms at the commune, district, and town levels. They have all the information required,” Chey said.
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