Sport Ministry to act on AG’s report

the release of the quite “stinging” Auditor-General’s report, Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said they will follow up on the recommendations.

The Sports Minister focused on a fair amount of pages in the 604page report, especially in regard to the construction of the KL Sports City (KLSC) in Bukit Jalil and other sports complexes, specifically for the 2017 Sea Games in Kuala Lumpur.

“We take the (Auditor-General’s) suggestions very, very seriously and we will comb through it one by one. If there is any evidence of wrongdoing, we will report it and take further action,” he said.

Among the conclusions of Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad are that the KLSC project did not abide by the “privatisation agreement”.

This saw different job scopes being undertaken, leading to the project’s cost increment from RM499.21 million to RM1,211.91 million.

Another issue raised was the project’s ability to secure a Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) despite the venue being “uncompleted” with flawed finishing and without supporting documents from the contractors.

“We want to raise a culture of integrity which is why as soon as I took office, I launched the fivepoint plan and the ministry became the first to place an MACC officer to work with us, and we no longer rely on reports from an internal officer.

“This is to ensure matters like this don’t happen,” said Syed Saddiq who introduced the fivepoint plan for future procurements in August.

The report also uncovered a troubling detail about the KLSC as it does not possess a Fire Certificate which was supposed to be obtained 12 months after the CCC is issued.

“There will be a change in the NSB’s (National Stadium Board) leadership whereby there will only be qualified individuals to fix the previous mistakes especially in terms of safety.

“It’s very important and this is not the first time I am hearing this but we have to take it seriously,” he said.