DUN service centre money used for trips, businesses

AUDIT REPORT The Terengganu government forked out more than RM500,000 for study trips and business ventures paid for by state assembly (DUN) service centres.

According to the Auditor-General's Report 2011, the Dungun, Kuala Terengganu and Setiu district offices were allocated RM89.6 million between 2009 to 2011.

In these years, RM363,365 was spent by the Bukit Rakit, Ladang, Bandar, Rantau Abang, Sura, Paka, Langkap and Permaisuri DUN service centres for "study trips and informational trips".

The "study trips" were by schoolchildren, village security and development committees and parent-teacher associations while "informational trips" were by varsity clubs.

"The informational trips were varsity club trips overseas to places like Indonesia, China, Singapore and China," the report reads.

The auditor-general found that this contravened the state secretariat's guideline for expenses, which the service centres can claim back from the secretariat.

Money for businesses 

The audit also found that RM71,976 was given to individuals for business purposes while RM109,100 was used for business projects.

Among the funding provided for individual businesses were RM8,100 for a hydraulic coconut machine, RM16,000 for swiflet nest farming and RM30,000 for three belacan drying huts.

The district offices were also found to have used some of the funds for its own purposes, for example, the Kuala Terengganu district office spent RM16,290 in 2010 to buy 14 laptop computers.

The Kuala Terengganu district office had paid the Ladang DUN service centre twice the amount claimed by the Ladang DUN service centre, amount to an excess of RM19,066.

To this, the district office said that a letter will be issued to claim back the excess amount paid.

Regarding the state secretariat guideline on the use of DUN service centre allocations, the Setiu and Dungun district offices said they were not informed of it.

"The guideline was only made known at a conference on Sept 15, 2011," they said.