The KBE Local Government handed out the first quarterly compensation payments to Bikinians in 14 months this past Friday.
Since the late 1980s, quarterly payments had been provided to Bikinians like clockwork, based on the Bikini Claims Trust Fund, which was capitalized by the first Compact of Free Association’s nuclear test compensation section.
But money dried up late last year as the previous KBE Local Government administration exhausted the Bikini Resettlement Trust Fund and then attempted to make use of the Claims Trust Fund for local government operations, not quarterly distributions. By mid-year, things became tied up in the Cabinet-ordered receivership of the local government.
The new administration of KBE Local Government, which took office in early January, sorted out details and made the small payment last Friday to get the quarterly cycle back on track. The amount per person was reported to be $132.
The funding also included a quarterly allotment of food, which was also one of the benefits provided by Bikini quarterly compensation payments in the past.
The banks, which due to the default of dozens of loans over a year ago totaling in excess of a million dollars could have taken the entire payment to partially recover overdue loans, instead reportedly took about half of the payment to recover losses.