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Disabled Care and Rehabilitation Fund suspends operations, manager dismissed
The fund offers services to more than 52,000 disabled people nationwide.
The government facility personnel and the beneficiaries of the fund held the management responsible for the disruption of services, accusing it of corruption.
Najib Al-Qadasi, social researcher at the fund, told the Yemen Times that the fund had closed its doors because of the expiration of its contracts with other entities such as hospitals and pharmacies.
He pointed out that the excessive expenditure by the fund’s management was the key reason behind the operations’ suspension, and the draining of the abundant financial resources of the DCRF.
The DCRF provides many services to people with disabilities, including covering the expenses of their treatment, surgical procedures, therapeutic travel abroad and medicine. It also provides financial and educational assistance for poor students as well as monthly aid for some distressed disabled persons.
Keeping the DCRF closed will be a disaster for thousands of Yemeni families, especially for those disabled or who are chronically ill on medication.
The fund had similarly suspended its services in July 2011 also due to financial problems, although the budget of the fund amounts to YR 7 billion annually.
A ministerial committee, comprised of the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Jawhra Hamoud, Minister of Civil Service and Insurances, Nabil Shamsan, and Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Ama Al-Razaq Ahmed, was formed in order to look into the matter.
The committee decided to dismiss Abdullah Al-Hamdani, the fund manager on the grounds of corruption after several protests demanding his removal. However, the dismissal has to be validated by the approval of the Prime Minister, Mohammed Salem Basindawa.
It’s expected that the staff and many of beneficiaries of the DCRF will organize a protest sit-in in front of the Cabinet on Monday to emphasize their demand for Al-Hamdani’s removal.
Yemen has one of the highest rates of disabled people in the world as they account for about ten percent of total population, according to a survey compiled by Ministry of Social Affairs released in January 2012.
