Mafulat-ish shortage in Rasah's food aid pack

Malaysiakini (extracts):

Each pack of food aid given to Rasah only costs RM35, MP claims

CORONAVIRUS | A Pakatan Harapan lawmaker claimed that the government-funded Covid-19 food packs are not worth RM100 a pack as promised.

Rasah MP Cha Kee Chin said his office received 150 packs yesterday but he and his team found out the total value of each packet of food was only worth around RM35.

This is from the 1,000 Covid-19 food packs for the B40 lower-income group during the current movement control order (MCO) which the Perikatan Nasional government said had been allocated for each parliamentary constituency.

According to Cha, there were only seven items in the orange packet, which are five kilogrammes of rice, one kilogramme of cooking oil, one packet of rice vermicelli, a packet of biscuits, tea and instant coffee.

“We opened it up when my assistant brought back the food packs (to the office) and the contents were out of our expectation.

“The rice has an RM13 price tag on it, the price of oil and bee hoon (rice noodles) is worth between RM2 and RM3 each… the food pack probably cost, at most, RM35,” Cha added.

The five-kilogramme packet of rice is only sufficient for a week if the recipient has four or five family members who live under the same roof, Cha sighed when contacted by Malaysiakini yesterday evening.

He said he did ask for an explanation from the Seremban Social Welfare Department (JKM) regarding the devalued food packs but the officer replied that these were the items they had received from the higher officer.

For fear of the public’s misunderstanding, Cha said, he and his team have had to explain, during the distribution to the recipients, that the food packs were not purchased by his parliamentary office, but by JKM.

“If there is no explanation, the people will mistakenly believe that we only spent RM35 of the RM100 allocation for each food packet.

“So what happened in between? They will misconstrue that I or my assistant pocketed (the remaining RM65),” Cha lamented.

Cha said his team would continue to give out aid to the needy and prioritise the poorest community, despite these problems