PAC to haul up two ministries

Hasan: Officials to be queried once Parliament reconvenes in March

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will call up the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry and the Health Ministry over weaknesses outlined in the 2015 Auditor-General’s Report (Second Series).

PAC chairman Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin said the two ministries would be the first to be called up when Parliament reconvenes in March next year.

“There are other ministries and agencies we wish to call up as well. But these two are the priority for now,” he said at Parliament House after a briefing by Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang on his report.

Hasan said the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry would be questioned over its poor management of the Cooking Oil Stabilisation Scheme (COSS), which cost the Government an extra RM2.92mil in subsidy payments.

The A-G Report said that standard operating procedures were not followed through in the awarding of temporary packaging quotas for cooking oil, which were given to 10 palm oil refineries and eight packaging companies.

The Health Ministry would be queried by the PAC on the management of medicinal supplies at health clinics nationwide.

Weaknesses discovered included the storage of medicines in poor condition, medicine procurement contracts that were only bound by a letter of agreement and not formal contracts, and the absence of penalty clauses for late delivery of medicinal supplies made through direct purchases.

Ambrin said the first audit report released earlier this year found that there were general weaknesses in terms of ministerial procedures.

There are cases which required punitive action which the A-G’s action committee will follow up on.

“This is considered normal procedure,” he told reporters.

The PAC also announced that a follow-up audit would be carried out on the Education Ministry’s 1BestariNet project.

Hasan said the PAC would visit schools including those in the interior to review the reception and performance of 1BestariNet among students and teachers.

The project aimed to provide 4G broadband connectivity and virtual learning environment (VLE) to 10,000 schools nationwide.

He said the PAC had no plans to question former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who was education minister when the project was first implemented in 2011.

The 1BestariNet project, which would have cost the Government RM4bil over 15 years, had previously come under fire by the A-G and PAC for its failure to deliver its projects on time.

These two are the priority for now. Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin