Education Ministry denies purchasing expensive loudspeakers for schools

PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry (KPM) refuted a report in a blog, which quoted information from a WhatsApp posting by a teacher who questioned the purchase of a loudspeaker for his school, which was described as too expensive compared with the market price.

KPM in a statement yesterday said the report under the heading ‘School Teacher Exposes KPM robbed of RM80 million over loudspeakers for schools’ was a malicious defamation.

The report was aimed at undermining the image and reputation of Dr Maszlee Malik as Education Minister, the ministry as well as the new government, it said.

“KPM did not propose to buy the equipment at such a high price, which is unreasonable and would be wasting public money especially since Pakatan Harapan formed the government after the 14th general election,” said KPM.

According to the statement, the teacher later apologised via his Facebook page on Dec 28 that he had made a mistake.

The teacher conceded his mistake in making the allegation, which was not true on the price and apologised for his error.

The KPM statement showed two new schools in Selangor, which opened in May, were supplied with one unit of loudspeaker each by the Selangor Education Department at a price of RM1,720 per unit, and not RM6,000 as claimed.

The purchase was made through proper procurement process and financial procedures, said KPM. — Bernama