Yong handing over food aid to a senior citizen in her constituency recently.
KUCHING: Pending assemblyman Violet Yong says the RM200,000 which the state government allocated to all 82 state constituencies to purchase food and other essentials for those worst hit by the Movement Control Order (MCO) never reached the DAP Padungan, Pending, Batu Lintang, and Kota Sentosa service centres.
She claimed in a statement today that the distribution of food aid in these areas has to go through the Sarawak Welfare Department (JKMS) and Resident Office, thereby bypassing local state elected representatives while in seats under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), the assemblymen have full control over the food aid.
“It is a disappointment to note that by creating this unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, it has caused the distribution of food aid in all these areas held by DAP to move at a snail’s pace, and none of the people whose names which DAP Kuching submitted on March 31 have received any food aid from the state,” she said.
Meanwhile, she added that they have been informed by JKMS and the Resident’s Office that as of April 13, they have distributed the aid to N.9 Padungan (875 families), N.10 Pending (738 families), N.11 Batu Lintang (3612 families) for Batu Lintang N.11 and N.12 Kota Sentosa (1675 families).
“However, when we asked for the details of the areas and names of the recipients, both JKMS and Resident Office have refused to give them to us, despite our repeated requests. This is totally unacceptable and irresponsible.
“Every elected representative has the right to know the details of the recipients in the area so that necessary and proper planning as well as adjustments could be made to ensure that all those poor and needy families are taken care of and do not miss out on the aid,” she said.
She added that so far, only 738 families in Pending have benefited from the food aid.
“I am duty bound to ask who are the actual recipients from these 738 families that have taken the food aid?
How many more families who have yet to receive the aid? How is the funding of RM200,000 being spent? How much does it cost for a set of food aid to be given for a household? What are the items that were included in the food aid?
“Sad to say, all DAP elected representatives are kept in the dark concerning this information. I am of the view that if there is nothing to hide and all distribution works are done in a proper and transparent manner, there is no reason for the Sarawak government to deny the rights of DAP elected representatives to know every details regarding the food aid,” she said.
Yong said that at this critical time, all quarters should be “transparent and bipartisan” in dealing with the distribution of food aid during the MCO.
“Time is of the essence whereby all essential food items are to be distributed to the poor and needy without any further delay,” said Yong.