Phuket’s B50mn disaster relief fund spent on fighting COVID

Phuket Vice Governor Vikrom Jakthee revealed the news at a provincial-level meeting held at Provincial Hall yesterday (Aug 23).

Of the B50mn that was held as the province’s standing disaster relief emergency fund, B49,731,535 had been disbursed through 12 payments, Vice Governor Vikrom said.

Only B268,465 of the standing disaster relief fund remains, he confirmed.

Of the B49.7mn spent, B32,743,402.17 was spent on projects already completed. The remaining B12,492,909.93 had been allocated to projects that are still ongoing, he said.

V/Gov Vikrom did not specify which projects had received which amounts of money. It was also not disclosed what the outstanding B4,495,222.90 had been dedicated to.

With the standing disaster relief fund all but depleted, the Comptroller-General had provided another B50mn for Phuket officials to continue funding projects to counter the spread of COVID-19, V/Gov Vikrom continued.

“Each province in the country has been allocated B50mn as a special budget to spend on COVID-19 protection measures,” he added.

Of the new B50mn anti-COVID budget, the Phuket Provincial Government had already disbursed B14,793,775.30, V/Gov Vikrom confirmed.

Again, it was not specified which projects had received how much money.

“The remaining B35,206,224.70 has not been spent,” V/Gov Vikrom said.