Untraceable loans: Billions down the drain

YOURSAY 'I am flabbergasted as to such poor collection and recovery of the PTPTN loans given out. At the end of the day, it is the will to perform that matters.'

Dirty data behind PTPTN's mountain of debt

Ferdtan: National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) chief executive officer Agos Cholan said that "it doesn't mean we can't work, we can."

I dare say the problem is much bigger than what he is trying to paint. I think it is a total mess. The only way out of the dilemma is to abolish it when Pakatan takes over Putrajaya. Why do I say it?

My daughter and my nephew took PTPTN loans, and both are having problems with the agency.

My daughter had been trying to pay back her loan, and after many phone calls made to the centre with no result, she once had to take leave to go the centre to enquire. Then only the problem was solved.

The reason she took such active steps in trying to pay back was that she had read in the newspaper that some delinquent debtors had been stopped at the airport from travelling due to the non-payment of PTPTN debt. She didn't want to face that consequence.

Now do you know why the debts keep piling up?

Bystander: How much of the loan was legitimately given to deserving and qualified students? Who are responsible for the administration and management of the PTPTN loan?

I am flabbergasted as to such poor collection and recovery of the loans given out. Cannot trace is simply an unacceptable excuse as the establishment has all the machinery to back them up. At the end of the day, it is the will to perform that matters.

My relative who was not informed of the success of her claim on the first BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia) was told recently that records show she was paid last year when she went to register and apply again for the second BR1M payments, which is expected to pay out soon next year.

Now who did they pay to for the first BR1M payment which she did not receive but was paid out?

Malaysian Born: Clearly this entire exercise was badly handled right from the beginning, the lack of accountability and oversight further compounded the problem to the crisis we see today.

The numbers involved are mind-numbingly high but the reality is that there is no point now throwing road blocks in front of them.

The RM26 million for Paradigm to develop a database system is an acceptable figure under the circumstances when you need a system to manage and recover RM45 billion which you cannot afford to lose.

They should be allowed to move ahead but there must be real accountability and oversight, with the officers in charge such as PTPTN CEO Agos Cholan and others must be made to understand that there will be severe ramifications to them if they do not deliver.

Not only should the system be successfully commissioned but every recipient must be traced and given the friendly option to start repayment or face immediate legal action.

The figure in question dwarfs all other financial scandals and cannot be ignored for political expedience.

Righteous: New graduates are asking higher wages because they are forced to take loans, this translates to higher running costs that are passed on the customers, thus driving up prices.

I feel for these students, who are being saddled with a RM600 debt every month when they are earning so little when they start out.

But there is no choice but to pay low salary until you find out if they are worth it, so many "qualified" people know next to nothing and need to do all their training on the job.

Pemerhati: PTPTN cannot trace the students who took the loans? We know that Umno is an expert in creating phantoms. We have heard of phantom voters and most probably the other Umno-created schemes to dish out money like PTPTN, BR1M, etc, have phantom recipients too.

This is another nice and easy way for the Umnoputras to siphon off the people's money in addition to the other well-known methods such as buying unnecessary military hardware at exorbitant prices and collecting huge kickbacks (for example, about RM500 million in the case of Scorpene submarines) and giving negotiated contracts for mega projects to cronies at very high prices and then getting huge kickbacks from them as was the norm under former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad and which was continued by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak.

Cocomomo: Untraceable? Unacceptable! Tax on my hard-earned money (I never received any scholarship or loan and my poor parents had slogged it out for years to enable me to be educated and become an accountant) thrown away again.

Engage a recovery firm to pursue for collection - maybe the people involved would not want that as their mismanagement and/or corruption will be exposed. Pay the collection agency based on the amount recovered.

Ong Guan Sin: The hallmark of 55-year-old Umno-BN regime has been endemic corruption. But it has now also emerged that incompetence and ineffectiveness to govern are now additional characteristics of the regime.

Malaysians must wake up to the reality - we have bred a very sick patient that must be prescribed with strong dose of medicine for it to have any chance of recovery - kick it out of Putrajaya once. - Malaysiakini