Minister claims Audit Dept's K-Pop report out of tune

The Auditor-General's Department has drawn flak from the former youth and sports minister, who accused its number crunching on the K-Pop controversy to be out of tune.

Ahmad Shabery Cheek, who is now communication and multimedia minister, described the department as being "culas" (not diligent) in checking the facts.

In a Facebookposting, he conceded that the Youth and Sports Ministry had paid RM1.6 million for a K-Pop concert in conjunction with the National Youth Day 2012 celebration. 

However, Shabery said the money came from sponsors.

Taking the Audit Department to task, the minister noted that it did not include the money from sponsors which was banked into the National Sports Council's account.

"The auditors only looked at the amount that came out of the ministry's account," he added.

Shabery said the ministry received RM20 million from domestic and foreign corporate sponsors for the celebration.            

"It was not taxpayers' money that was wasted as alleged by the opposition based on the summary contained in the Auditor-General's Report," he added. 

Contrary to Shabery's claim, his successor Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday said the Youth and Sports Ministry was forced to pick upthe tab because the sponsors withdrew.

Among others, the audit report stated that a total of RM1.11 million was spent on promotion and publicity for the event, which the auditor-general described as too high.

Other expenses similarly classified were two separate payments of RM50,000 to 50 bloggers for promotion and publicity.