The United Nations halted food handouts at one of its distribution sites in Port-au-Prince on Monday, after discovering fake aid coupons were in circulation, officials said.

Rice handouts at a site in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville were scrapped as officials tried to find out how many of the fake, colored coupons existed.

The UN World Food Programme's David Orr said the suspension could affect 10,000 survivors of the massive January 12 earthquake that has left around a million Haitians homeless.

Orr said there would be "too much room for confusion" if deliveries went ahead Monday and that scams were "getting more sophisticated."

But the World Food Programme later sought to play down the fraud, saying the suspension was enforced "to give us and our partners time to improve the coupon distribution process."

Orr said there were concerns that women with large numbers of children and other needy groups "were not being sufficiently prioritized during the distribution of coupons."

Despite the halt, an agitated crowd of around 100 people continued to wait at the drop off site close to Petionville's town hall well into the afternoon, as other's clamored to get tickets valid for Tuesday.

"We need food!" one old lady shouted at a guard charged with manning the steel bars that blocked the entrance to the town hall offices. Others simply pointed to their mouths and stomachs.

There was also a heavy police as people trickled toward the gates from a temporary camp nearby.

The World Food Programme has set up 16 food distribution points across the city, handing out 25-kilogram sacks of rice, designed to feed a family for two weeks.

Scenes at the distribution points are often chaotic, and sizeable detachments of UN or US troops are now drafted to keep the peace.

Soon after the quake food distribution efforts saw a small number of UN troops overrun by thousands awaiting food.

Since then the UN has instituted a coupon system, which means recipients have to get a specifically colored and stamped coupon showing which site food can be picked up at and on which day.

Orr said World Food Programme partners hoped to restart distribution in Petionville on Tuesday, and that there was no indication of who was behind the scam.

Since the January 12 quake the World Ford Programme claims to have fed 1.9 million people in the quake-stricken nation.

Share This Article With Planet Earth