Donated aid being traded for cash, goods

Bags of wheat flour and tins of cooking oil bearing the logos of international aid agencies being sold in Peshawar.

MEHMOOD KOT: Crime and the sale of donated aid supplies are undermining flood aid efforts. Bags of wheat flour and tins of cooking oil bearing the logos of international aid agencies like the World Food Programme and USAID are openly being sold in Peshawar.

“We buy them (relief goods) from (flood) survivors,” said shopkeeper Abdul Ghafoor, who owns a shop in Gur Mandi. “They get money (in return) and buy something else which they need…This cannot happen without the knowledge of officials,” said another shopkeeper, Rahimullah Khan. “Survivors (simply) cannot bring a truck full of supplies without them knowing.”

One Reuters reporter saw wheat flour being unloaded in a market from a truck labeled ‘Relief Goods for Flood Affected People, from Islamic Relief’.

The goods are then sold at cheaper rates. “I can buy a 50kg bag of flour for Rs300 less than the going rate.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2010.