'Sandwich kosong' for school kids, even sardines go missing

Imagine being promised a sardine sandwich, but given two slices of white bread with margarine. This is what the Auditor-General found being supplied under the Additional Food Programme (RMT) designed for schoolchildren by the government.

In its report for the year of 2009, the Auditor-General found that SK Jeroco in Lahad Datu, which was supposed to provide the pupils sardine sandwiches with slices of cucumber, tomato and lettuce, gave them only margarine sandwiches.

Apart from the SK Jeroco, food suppliers in five different primary schools around Malaysia, who were checked out, were caught supplying food way below the quality of the recommended menu for the RMT programme.

"After the feedback from the dietician in the Health Ministry's nutrition department, we found that food from the menu provided can cause the schoolchildren to suffer from malnutrition," the Auditor-General's Report noted.

Six other outsourced school food suppliers have also been caught providing food completely different from the recommended menu in the RMT programme, often food that was of lower value.

The Additional Food Programme was started 30 years ago to give underprivileged children free food, at a value of RM1.80 (in Peninsular Malaysia) and RM2.05 (in Sabah and Sarawak), to supplement their daily diet.

However, the Auditor-General's Report shows that several contractors are still cheating in their supply of schoolchildren's meals.

Another of the many examples of irregularities in the programme was at SJK(C) Choong Hua 2 in Bidor, Perak. The supplier of canteen food provided packets of instant noodles to the pupils, instead of fried bihun.

And the common excuse by the schools, as well as the suppliers, was that "it is difficult to obtain the raw materials, especially when some of the schools are in the interiors.

Contaminated food in hospitals

The Auditor-General's Report also highlighted the poor quality of food in a number of hospitals.

"In our sampling, we found that Sultan Ismail Hospital provides low quality diet. The fried chicken is still bloody, while the Penang General Hospital served vegetable soup with fur/hair in it," said the report.

"This can cause food poisoning and other diseases," it added.

The army has also not been spared from the supply of substandard food. The Terendak Camp in Malacca was found to be serving stale fish and vegetables to the soldiers.

It was later found that this was because the stale produce cost a lot less than the market price.

In another example, the report said visits to the army camps in Sungai Petani, Lok Kawi, Rasah and Terendak showed that the rations received were constantly in excess, with some foodstuff left untouched until they reached the expiry date. - Malaysiakini