Samoan PM denies tsunami aid rorts

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 7:06a.m.

The Samoan Prime Minister is rejecting claims of tsunami aid relief rorts, blaming media there for making up stories of corruption and aid diversion.

Porirua deputy mayor Litea Ah Hoi, who returned from Samoa on Saturday, said she had no doubt aid was being mismanaged by the government.

Ms Ah Hoi said not only was aid being inefficiently distributed by local leaders, but she was certain some was being sold off in shops.

"People talk about it quite openly in Samoa, in the streets and the fales, but they won't speak out publicly over it, and that's one of the stories that has been relayed, that some of the trucks have been selling off to the shops," she told the Dominion Post.

However, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said that international aid was getting to the people who needed it.

"Our media will print any story that anybody comes up with, and it is one of my contentions that our media should have come and analysed, followed up, the truth of these allegations," he said.

Kapiti psychologist Richard Sawrey, who returned this month from a two-week volunteer stint in Samoa, said the feeling on the ground was that the government was doing a good job.

"We have seen no evidence of mismanagement of aid or funds during our work," he said.

"The local village leaders that we were working with were doing all they could to distribute wisely to the affected families."

NZPA

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