Ramadan 2013: Mayors steal government's food aid to the needy

Interior and Local governments Ministry received dozens of reports on abuses and violations during the distribution of Ramadan food aid, and appeal against the decision to decentralize the program of Ramadan food aid, which was withdrawed from the Ministry of National Solidarity, and was officially entrusted for the elected municipal councils, as the majority of reports express suspicion in the integrity and transparency of the process.

Official sources told Echorouk that the majority of the governors of the Republic raised reports on the process of distributing Ramadan food aid, to the Interior Minister, in the beginning of the second week of Ramadan, but these reports mostly went in the negative direction and explicitly criticised the way the municipal councils distributed the food aid to the needy, and among the notes which were included in all the reports, is that the process was conducted in accordance with standards to ensure transparency, which led to the exclusion of hundreds of needy families from benefiting from the government’s aid.

Reports spoke about the chaos and lack of coordination between the services which are involved in the process of solidarity and Ramadan food aid at the local level, which led to the delay in the distribution to the beneficiaries, as the number of opinions on how to give it to the needy led to another kind of chaos, between the Municipal People’s Councils which preferred to give basic food products, and other councils which considered that granting cash aid to the poor citizens is better, leading to the loss of the process at the crossroads, and therefore it did not reach those in need through both ways, because some municipalities have dealt with the process as a bargain, and entered in negotiations with suppliers, under the table for a specific need.