Use RM150mil saved from vaccine donors to enhance food baskets, says Najib

 

Najib Razak said the savings from the vaccine donations could be used to improve the food basket programme by increasing the number of recipients and enhancing the contents. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The vaccine donations from the US, Japan and China should have saved the government RM150 million of the RM5 billion taken from the National Trust Fund (KWAN) to vaccinate Malaysians, says Najib Razak.

The former prime minister said the government could thus utilise the money saved to enhance the food basket programme, which he said was inadequate at the moment.

“Previously, the Perikatan Nasional government had said they will draw RM5 billion from KWAN to fully fund the country’s vaccination programme.

“But subsequently, Malaysia received 2.5 million vaccine doses donated by the US (one million doses), Japan (one million) and 500,000 doses from China.

“With the estimated cost of RM60 per dose, it means the government has saved up to RM150 million,” Najib said in his Facebook posting today.

As such, he said this money should be used to improve the food basket programme by increasing the number of recipients and enhancing the contents.

“If you don’t want to add on to the contents, then give cash, either RM50 or RM100, to each recipient so they can buy a bit of ‘lauk’ (side dishes),” Najib said.

He said the government is currently not spending as much as it can on the food basket assistance to the people.

Despite the RM21 million budget meant to prepare 420,000 food baskets under the Bakul Prihatin programme, he said in reality the government’s contribution only adds up to RM5 million.

“Although the PN parties are eager to place their stickers or labels on these baskets and hand them out, the government’s allocation for the programme is only RM5 million,” he said.

Najib said the RM16 million balance was actually contributed by Yayasan Petronas (RM5 million), AEON Big (RM4 million), Pharmaniaga (RM3 million), Tenaga Nasional Berhad (RM2 million) and Telekom Malaysia (RM2 million).

At the same time, he said the cost of each food basket comes up to RM50 but this was inclusive of the RM10 for the cost of packaging, political stickers and delivery.

Najib said these food baskets were inadequate for the affected families as the pandemic cannot be compared to other disasters like major floods, which are only temporary in nature.

“The pandemic is different because many of the recipients can no longer find any means of income for months due to the government’s failure to impose an effective lockdown to curb Covid-19,” he said. - FMT