(From left) Mohd Sani, Hussaini, Zulfikar and Tiong at the dialogue with Rela members.
SIBU (Aug 6): Members of the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) Sarawak will receive their April to June unpaid allowances by next week, its director Abang Zulfikar Abang Raduan said.
He said the state government had channeled RM4.69 million into Sarawak Rela’s account yesterday.
“The money will be distributed to the Rela members who have yet to receive their allowances for the months of April to June. By next week, those who have yet to get their unpaid allowances should be able to get theirs,” he said.
Abang Zulfikar said the unpaid allowances only affected Rela members in Bintulu.
He was speaking to reporters after a dialogue with Rela members in Bintulu this morning, which was also attended by Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, Bintulu deputy resident Hussaini Judge and Bintulu police station chief ACP Mohd Sani Junid.
The dialogue was called after a Rela member in Bintulu highlighted the issue of their unpaid allowance for their duties during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period on social media.
Abang Zulfikar said the MCO assignment allowances from May 6 had been approved by the state government through the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) and was to be paid by the state government.
In the past, he said they relied on Federal funds for the allowance payments.
‘However, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the number of Rela members on duty rose sharply by more than 300 percent. Hence, we encountered allocation problems and though the state government agreed to assist, there were still problems of slight delay of payment,” he said.
At the moment, he said there are about 3,000 Rela members in Sarawak, including 347 in Bintulu.
For the month of April, Abang Zulfikar said there was not much of a problem on the allowance payment but for the month of May and June, there were delays in the allocation of funds from the state government to Sarawak Rela.
“However, with the channeling of the money into Sarawak Rela account yesterday, all these problems of unpaid allowance should be considered as resolved.”
Abang Zulfikar also mentioned that the total allowance claim for members of Sarawak Rela for the months of April to June was actually RM6.9 million.
“As for the remaining RM2.3 million, it will be channeled into the accounts of the Rela members at a later date,” he said
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(From left) Mohd Sani, Hussaini, Zulfikar and Tiong at the dialogue with Rela members.