ATTORNEY GENERAL AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM AT THE FIJI PROCUREMENT OFFICE YARD

The Ministry of Economy had to clean the data received through the food ration helpline 161 as there were many repeated calls.

Economy Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this was necessary as several Fijians tried to bypass the system.

“We had four to five people from the same family ringing in and claiming to be from different households. That is why cleaning the data was necessary.”

Acting Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Economy Shiri Goundar says 4,430 food packs were distributed before midnight on Sunday.

Goundar says they anticipated to distribute around 7,000 packs, however, due to cleaning of the data the number reduced because they received several calls from the same household.

He adds each food pack costs around $43.50.

“Each food pack had eight items. This included 10kg rice, 4kg flour, 1kg split peas, 500ml cooking oil, 4 tin fish, 100g tea leaves, 2 packs of breakfast crackers and 300g milk powder.”

Goundar says the food ration packs were procured from Punjas – approved suppliers for the government.

He adds they have done proper record keeping of every household that received the food packs.