100,000 cheaters steal six billion DZ from poor in Algeria

More than 100,000 people had a hand in stealing six billion DZ by mayors and civil servants allocated to the poor and needy in Algeria, solidarity minister said.

• “Social investigations showed that 15,000 fake disabled people took more than one billion DZ as social aid using counterfeited documents,” said Djamel Oueld Abbas in a press conference in Algiers.
• “All the suspects will appear in court for embezzling the State’s money and depriving the poor of their rights,” he added.
• The minister gave the example of a woman who alleged she had lost her sight but she was seen driving a land rover to come to the ministry for a 3000 DZ monthly allowance.
• The minister said the government allocated 88 billion DZ for the school year 2009-2010. Of them, three billion was for the fasting month of Ramadan and 42 billion DZ for the poor.
• He also said Ramadan solidarity actions were successful and reached all the provinces of Algeria. “A total of 650 charity restaurants were opened, 5.5 million meals were distributed and 200,000 families get financial aid.”
• The solidarity ministry will help 155,000 poor people in coordination with the health ministry as they are not subscribed socially.