Opposition Senator Shamfa Cudjoe is calling on the Government to review and re-evaluate its food card programme, which falls under the purview of Social Development Minister Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh.
Cudjoe was making her contribution to the debate on a government bill to increase the 2013 budget by $2.9 billion in the Senate on Friday.
She insisted that there were many cases of abuse by the Government and recipients of the card.
In some cases, Cudjoe said, healthy working people were holders of the card, while others had more than one card in their possession.
“It is critical that we review and re-evaluate this social programme. There must be a legitimate process and requirement for applicants.”
Leading up to the Tobago House of Assembly election last year, Cudjoe said Ramadharsingh visited Tobago where $2 million in food cards were given out.
“What I was very concerned about was the process that was used. You would be sitting in your house during the day and then you hear a music truck travelling around the village telling you to come out and get your food card.
The treasury is not your personal bank account. That is why Tobago voted the way they did. That is not the way we spend taxpayers’ money.”