A-G report shows M’sia ‘bleeding itself to death’

Public fund wastage and the lack of political will must be corrected in order to move the fight against corruption.

PETALING JAYA: The repeated wastage of public funds and the lack of political will to make the corrections will slowly lead the nation to its demise, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) cautioned in a statement today.

“The Auditor-General’s report (2013) fundamentally demonstrates how this nation is bleeding itself to death.

“It should not and cannot be taken lightly. It’s a clear benchmark of the outright failure of the system and administration as a whole, dogged by an emphatic lack of political will,” C4′s M Pushpan and Cynthia Gabriel said in a joint statement today.

Citing the A-G’s report, C4 said the RM343.55 million Paya Peda Dam development project in Terengganu was awarded to a joint venture company through direct negotiations.

The A-G’s report found that the project was 18.49% behind schedule, the contractor had failed to adhere to contract clauses, inexperienced sub-contractors had been appointed and a sum of RM0.53 million had been paid out inappropriately.

“Direct negotiations, more often than not, are used to enrich cronies and family members and is not reflective of market value,” C4 said.

It said that the danger was the continued waste of funds through direct negotiations which went against the government’s intent of implementing the goods and services tax (GST) to boost its coffers.

“We as a nation are continually borrowing money to fund these projects and that is the main reason why the government needs to implement the GST, to ensure the country has sufficient money to service the loans taken by the government.

“However, the bulk of public wastage lies in (direct negotiation), when projects are priced at exorbitant values to allow public funds to be shared by multiple parties, reducing the availability of money for other areas of development.

“In the Paya Peda dam example, the fact that the contractor did not abide with EIA requirements and terms of the contract only shows the interference potential of high-ranking individuals,” C4 said.

The A-G’s report also mentioned, among others, funds intended for a malnourished children’s rehabilitation programme being spent on the purchase of assets and equipment, the mismanagement of hospital in-house meals and the ineffective management of petroleum revenues.

C4 said the government’s project implementation was weak and many projects were marred with corruption.

“The competency level of our officers is found lacking in all areas of administration including communication and dissemination of information. All information is deemed too sensitive, as evidenced in the MH370 handling,” it said.

The NGO said that to stop this practice, the government needs to inculcate a new culture of transparency and take action against those who commit the wrongdoings.

C4 said that society cannot “just sit back and lament yet another round of malfunctioning administration”, society must move the collective agenda to fight corruption.