The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has revealed that arrears owed beneficiaries will be paid before August 2017.

“The first tranche was paid in June with the second [final] being processed for payment by the end of July 2017,” a statement from the YEA PRO, Mohammed Awal, indicated on Wednesday July 19.

Mr Awal explained that payment of beneficiaries’ allowance, as earlier communicated, was suspended in March for an audit and a head count of beneficiaries which led to “accumulated arears of five months of beneficiaries at post”.

“After the audit and head count of beneficiaries, management in line with best financial practices decided to pay arrears in two tranches within two months,” the statement further noted.

YEA further asked beneficiaries to disregard any circular inviting beneficiaries of the agency to a demonstration by a group of YEA beneficiaries calling itself Coalition of YEA Beneficiaries as there is “no official recognition” given to any such group.

Management subsequently urged all beneficiaries to visit the various YEA offices across the country to make their concerns addressed if they have any, adding: “The wellbeing of beneficiaries is at the heart of the agency and management is, therefore, committed to paying all arrears duly earned.”

YEA further outlined that it had instituted a robust monitoring and evaluation mechanism to prevent future delays in the payment of beneficiary allowances.