By Joseph Dumbuya
In a very unprecedented development, the Rokel Commercial Bank desk office at Legal Aid Board head office has paid hundred mothers to collect child maintenance fees. Through the Child Maintenance Account opened on August 15 at the Siaka Stevens Street Branch of the Rokel Commercial Bank, the Executive Director of the Board, Ms. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles has called on fathers to be responsible and desist from delaying the payment of child maintenance money.
Ms. Carlton-Hanciles said: “We are under pressure when mothers come to collect maintenance monies from the bank after a week or more in the following month and find out nothing has been paid into their accounts”. She concedes that while the Board has found a way around irresponsible parents who flout settlements reached at mediation, it is still struggling to deal with fathers who delay payment of maintenance money.
