Member of the National Parliament asked members of government to stop pointing the finger at one another and blaming for rice going off in the Same Warehouse, rather focus on how to work with integrated management systems.
“This is not on. The rice goes off and we start blaming one another. The problem is with management and how ineffective it is,” said MP Inacio Moreira, FRETILIN, at the National Parliament, in Dili, last week (21/10).
MP Moreira asked who is responsible and for the government to explain how it is possible the rice is left to rot.
“I would say it is because of the poor quality of management,” said MP Moreira.
In the meantime, from MP Aderito Hugo, CNRT, stated that as of 2011 the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry (MTCI) stopped being responsible for the rice.
“In 2011, the rice we had was re-allocated in response to natural disasters and so it became the competence of the Ministry of Labour and Solidarity (MSS) to distribute it,” said MP Hugo.
He added the MSS is now distributing the rice everywhere to attend the needs of victims of natural disasters.
“That is correct, that is the competence of the Ministry of Labour and Solidarity.”
He added, the rice inside the Same Warehouse does not belong to MTCI but to MSS to help victims of natural disasters.
“We need to ask them why it has rotted, was it because of the quality from the people who sold it or was it that the warehouse is not in an adequate condition,” said MP Hugo.
In the meantime, MP Adriano Joao said the government should not start blaming one another even if the problem was poor coordination amongst them.
“They are both wrong. People in rural areas do not have rice and rice is left to rot inside the warehouse,” said MP Joao.
He urged the Ministry of Solidarity and the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry to better coordinate with one another, so that things do not go off inside the State Warehouses.
In a press release issued by MTCI, the Ministry claims MTCI was responsible for rice going to waste inside the warehouses was not based on facts because the rice inside the warehouse in Same belonged to MSS to respond to cases of natural disasters.
Manager for Food Security, Sancho da Silva, said the MTCI rice would have been enough to attend to those who needed it the most in Timor-Leste.
He added that looking at the difficulties faced by the community in remote areas with the prices of basic needs, in particular the high prices for rice, should not be blamed on MTCI it is more likely because Timor-Leste has adopted a Free Market System.
“This does not mean MTCI will just be silent if the people are hungry. At our warehouse in Tibar, we have enough to sustain the entire population of Timor-Leste,” said Manager da Silva.
According to him the process of distribution of rice is based on a pre-established calendar and will depend on requests from community leaders to MTCI.
TDW tried to confirm this issue with MSS but a representative was not available to speak to the media.
