Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun
KOTA KINABALU(Sept 22): Sabah Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the state government is transparent about its food basket distribution and is ready to lodge a police report should there be any discrepancies found in the system.
Replying to Luyang assemblyman Phoong Jin Tze during the State Assembly sitting on Wednesday, Masidi said, “but if there are YBs who think there is any misconduct in relation to the state’s food assistance distribution programme we are more than happy to come with you to lodge a police report on the matter.
“There is no issue, we are very transparent, I can assure you,” said the Local Government and Housing Minister.
Phoong raised his question about the value of food baskets given to the people and pointed out that based on the figures provided by Masidi, the food baskets cost RM434 each instead of RM100.
“I remember one food basket costs less than RM100 so with RM50 million allocated but only 115,000 families benefited, each basket costs RM434, why so expensive?” he asked.
When replying to Sulabayan assemblyman Datuk Dr Jaujan Sambakong’s question, Masidi disclosed that the government had so far given out food assistance worth more than RM50 million with an initial RM34.3 million spent followed by an additional RM15.7 million approved for the purpose.
Masidi told the House that the government took into account those who were initially left out from the list of recipients as well as the fact that there are requests for other types of assistance other than food items.
“The opposition had complained about people being left out so we took that into consideration and gave the additional allocation. In fact, we ended up paying more than we actually planned earlier,” he said adding, “I am sure the YBs understand this because when we go back to our constituencies, the situation is very sad as there are people who have lost their jobs and some do not have enough food to eat.”
According to Masidi, another factor that must be taken into consideration is the price difference of food items in the state capital and other districts.
“All the food items are purchased by the respective Covid-19 Management Committee which are chaired by the District Officers. So you may be able to buy five items for RM100 in Kota Kinabalu but the prices for the same items will be higher in places like Nabawan or Tongod for example,” he stressed.
Masidi also explained that cumulatively, a total of 680,973 food baskets had been distributed so far and 116,208 of the 157,863 baskets purchased under the additional RM15.7 million had been given out as of September 22.