KUCHING: The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) should solve consumers’ grievances promptly and expeditiously.
Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing raised the issue of subsidised goods including LPG, diesel, and petrol not reaching the targeted group.
The Bintulu PM said those who needed the goods urgently especially Sarawak’s rural communities had sent him endless complaints.
“I have asked the KPDNHEP to list the transportation depots and their contractors responsible for those deliveries from January to the present day.
“If the ministers and officials of KPDNHEP wish to refute or challenge my claims, I will personally bring them to the affected townships to see the actual situation for themselves,” he said.
Tiong noted that the deputy minister Chong Chieng Jen, should be the one who comes along, on one condition — the officers responsible for those failed deliveries, must resign from their positions or be removed.
He revealed that excessive amounts of white sugar have been delivered to places that were not even large enough to warrant receiving those huge amounts.
“Sugar is a controlled item and among the items that are subsidised.
“Yet, there is reason to suspect that its supply has been unfairly and incorrectly allocated and the contractors responsible must be held accountable for such errors.
“I have received many reports of rural areas and longhouses facing shortages of essential goods and subsidised items,” he said.
“KPDNHEP officials should not ask me to pinpoint the affected areas. It is their responsibility to go down to the ground and find out where the shortages are occurring and ensure that the supplies have indeed reached the people.”
Tiong alleged that not only are the goods not reaching the targeted rural areas, the prices of the subsidised goods are often similar to those sold in the urban areas.
