By EDDIE OSIFELO
MINISTRY of Finance and Treasury will make one batch of payment to Solomon Islands National University (SINU) government sponsored students this week.
This will be paid equally to Kukum and Panatina Campus students.
Permanent Secretary, McKinnie Dentana confirmed this to Island Sun yesterday and said further batch payment is next week.
“I cannot confirm whether it will two batches, might be three, I don’t know,” Dentana said.
“It will be subject to the completion on verification of all student’s registration and availability of funds,” he added.
“But I can confirm that this commitment will be cleared before the end of this month.”
Island Sun understands one batch includes 200 students.
About 1055 government sponsored students at SINU are waiting for their second semester allowances since classes started early this month.
The students are under pressure from their landlords and demands to meet their basic needs after semester two has resumed early this month.
Each student is supposed to receive a total of $29,720 after tax deduction for the whole semester, which runs until January 2021.
As such, Ministry of Finance and Treasury is expected to make a total payout of $31 million to meet the students’ allowances.
However, reports claimed the number maybe be reduced because some SIG sponsored students like nurses and marine have already received their second semester allowances.
PS Dentana told SIBC Talk Back show on Sunday that the delay of payment was because the ministry wants to verify the list of SIG sponsored students at SINU.
He said some students’ names do not appear on the enrollment list but instead on the allowances payroll list.
As such PS Dentana said the ministry does not want to avoid costs but to ensure people don’t get extra money from the government.
