The amnesty period for ineligible CARE for Fiji recipients has been re-opened until next Friday.
A government statement says abuse of CARE for Fiji Programmes can include, but is not limited to, misrepresentation on application forms, members of the same household attempting to separately register for the same assistance programme, the re-selling of assistance materials, or the spending of electronic cards at unauthorised vendors.
The statement says the amnesty period will continue to apply for all ineligible recipients under Farms-CARE, Homes-CARE, eTransport-CARE, Leaseholders-CARE and Sugarcane-CARE.
During this amnesty period, electronic cards that have already been spent by an ineligible recipient must also be repaid in full.
It also says many ineligible recipients have already taken advantage of the previous amnesty period and returned their electronic cards, or other forms of assistance, to the relevant authorities.
The government says there are no personnel authorised to enter Fijian communities and collect cards directly from recipients.
Electronic cards granted through Farms-CARE can be returned or repaid at any agriculture office in the country.
All recipients who return any form of assistance will be issued a receipt on-site. If a receipt is not issued, a receipt should be requested immediately.
Under the False Information Act 2016, any false information given to Government for the purposes of receiving a benefit is an offence punishable by law, and may result in a requirement to repay the benefit, a fine of up to $20,000 or an imprisonment term of up to 10 years or any or all of the foregoing.
