Tekun Nasional disbursed financing of RM4.29 billion to entrepreneurs

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Entrepreneurial Group Economic Fund ( TEKUN Nasional) disbursed financing of RM4.29 billion to 473,982 entrepreneurs from RM4.29 billion to 1998 sehingga 30 Jun 2016.

The Auditor General’s Report Series One revealed that for the same period, repayments recorded just RM2.71 billion (63.2 per cent) and a service charge of four per cent was imposed on the financing amounts.

“For the same period too, TEKUN Nasional received loan financing of RM1.86 billion from the Ministry of Finance, whereas a RM670 million grant was received from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (MOA).

“The MOA grant was for the purpose of an Economic Stimulus Package, flood victims aid and the Indian Community Entrepreneurial Development Schemes. Other than that, TEKUN Nasional also implemented special programmes utilsing funds from state governments/agencies of RM157.77 million,” the report said.

However, the report also revealed that the financial performance of TEKUN Nasional from 2013 to 2015 was less than satisfactory due to massive debt to the government and a huge amount of bad debts being written off.

Accumulated losses at end-2015 amounted to RM209.28 million.

To improve the performance management of the company, the auditors recommended that TEKUN Nasional take a number of measures, including, conducting a comprehensive study to evaluate the effectiveness of fund utilisation and reasons for the failure of businesses.

TEKUN Nasional was also asked to conduct a feasibility study before execution of a programme and to monitor programmes to ensure objectives are achieved, as well as, timely repayment of financing.

It was also recommended that the agency practice good corporate governance from time to time, particularly on the internal controls on receivables and payables, including payments to unqualified individuals. — Bernama