Poor cheated out of subsidized rice

Poor cheated out of subsidized rice

BANDUNG: Corruption has played a part in the distribution of subsidized rice for the poor in West Java, causing an estimated Rp 5.9 billion in losses to the provincial administration, legislators said.

"We received a report from people that they each received less than the 20 kilograms they were promised," Yomanius Untung, a member of the West Java legislative council, said on Wednesday.

He said the council later verified the report and found that the 20 kg sacks of subsidized rice selling for Rp 1,000 per kilogram, weighed about 4 kg less.

Low-income families entitled to subsidized rice from the West Java Logistics Agency (Dolog) total 1.1 million.

The cost of the lost rice from January through May could run as high as Rp 5.9 billion, Untung said. --JP