KUCHING, May 2: State authorities in charge of food aid distribution discovered that there were repeated, overlapped and duplicated applications from same households for the food aid programme.
Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Batu Kawa Service Centre, in a media release today, highlighted that authorities found out some kind of abuse by certain quarters for the state government’s food aid programme.
“There were repeated applications from the same household, or spouses using different addresses for their applications as well as using underage children as applicants.
“The food essentials are meant for those needy who met the criteria and are approved by the Kuching District Office and Kuching Disaster Management Committee after conducting checks on their eligibility,” the statement said.
The centre emphasised that each eligible household is allowed to receive the food aid once and that the package would comprise of rice, cooking oil, sugar, flour, biscuit and cans food.
Today, the centre revealed that another 500 packages of essential food and goods had been given out to households in the Batu Kawa constituency.
Meanwhile, the centre has so far distributed 8,650 packages through 10 deliveries for the vulnerable and needy families in Batu Kawa area since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced on March 18.
The Sarawak government’s food aid programme was aimed at assisting needy families impacted by Covid-19 pandemic and MCO throughout the state.
“A total of RM400,000 have been spent for the food aid programme for Batu Kawa apart from the RM200,000 grant allocated by the Sarawak government which was channelled to Kuching District Office and Kuching Disaster Management Committee.
“The remaining balance was from Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian (Batu Kawa assemblyman)’s constituency funding as well as donations from the private sector,” the statement added. —DayakDaily
