Wastages, corruption and status quo

You get that feel
And everybody knows
You're moving their minds
Moving their minds around

From Heart's Rockin Heaven Down 

A political rumour picked up this morning mentioned there will be an announcement by Dato Hishamuddin bin Tun Hussein Onn just days prior to the UMNO General Assembly.

It is supposed to be a project supposedly to benefit, directly or indirectly, the 140,000 voting UMNO branch delegates and turn his feared political misfortune around. It can't be train, it can't be anything mega, not politically sensitive taxi and hmmm... could it be buses?

Or abolish toll?

That should answer our friend in JB who thought we gave up on UMNO election. No, just sick to our stomach with what's happening.

Haven't simmered from  esterday's expose on the stealing of poor people's money. There is more action in exposing crooks than talking about UMNO's predictable election.  

Wastages list

Today's paper is reporting on the latest Auditor General report for 2012.

It reminded of Rocky's posting on the recent petrol hike. There was exchanges between a blogger and high official involves ourselves. Yes, we were that blogger.

If that high official (whose identity will remain anonymous for now) wants to see that list of 100 wastages of government, which should also be addressed, together with government's subsidies cut,  here goes:

1. Dr Ong Kian Meng's issue on McKinsey & Co.'s RM20 million consultancy to prepare the Educational masterplan which Tun Dr Mahathir sarcastically said should be done by local and relevent expert. Read here.

2. Expose on the 1Azam yesterday here. Syed Akbar here had calculated, not the wastage but corruption, to be RM360 million.

3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. FGV's strange dealings relating to China oil palm deal, purchase of Pontian plantation, purchase of London hotel, takeover of Iris PLC, Papua New Guinea New Britain plantation and another one coming. Track all these in Bigdog's blog and Rocky Bru's here and here

8. 9. 10. and 11. Suspeicious award of contracts by Putrajaya Holdings to WCT Holdings Berhad. Exposed here. Probably more than four contracts but keep it as four items. 

12., 13., and 14. Tender of accrual accounting system, Ubiquitous system for Jabatan Kastam and MyEG.com e-government concession. All exposed by this blog here and here.

15. Education Ministry's RM5 billion Bestari project tender. [Read in Rocky Bru here] Heard some dubious duda whose janda berhias had their finger in the pie.

16. Initial Endless Possibilities campaign. Remember? Read here    

17. MAS and AA merger fines. Read back on Rocky here.  

18. - 28. Lets allocate ten to MAS, AA and KLIA-related issues. Tan Sri Tony Fernandez himself contributed to maybe RM5 billion worth of wastages, leakages and what not.  

29. and 30. Past issues raised against Dato Shafie Afdal's Ministry of Rural Development. Read here. One for road construction and another for failed agropolitan projects. Heard there is more.  

31. MACC latest catch on an agent who allowed incursion of Vietnam fishermen. Maritime Agency was bribed. News here and comment by Flying Kick here.

32. to 40. What crap behind this Frost & Sullivan Award to Khazanah [read The Mole here] and their office in San Francisco [read Demi Negara here].

Let's assign 32. to 40. to Khaazanah and all their kind. It is not difficult to identify high finance style wastages in Khazanah's spending, badly conceived new business ideas, and over priced takeovers.

Already, read about staff RM1.2 million charge card expenseshere. We've talked about it before.. 

Within a couple of minutes we could compile a list of 40 for Husni.Opps ... did we say Husni? No .. no ... not Husni. Should we send the list to MoF II Dato Husni Hanazlah?

Auditor General's list

Not yet. Auditor General has just released their latest Auditor general's Report for 2012. Jebat Must Die is making a quick reviewhere on some of the crap few dishonest government servants are giving the long impeccable history of our civil service a bad name.

Adding to the list:

41.  Poor handling of school security to the tune of RM2 billion. The Star also reported on this here.

42. Lost of 309 missing items of weapons, handcuff and cars by the police worth  RM1.3 million. read in The Star also here.

43. Police purchased 5 aircraft for USD58.25 million but no fund to operate. 

44. Wastage on 7,659 shoes worth RM600,000. Read The Star also here 

45. Building RM199 incinerators in Langkawi, Pangkor, Tioman, Cameron Highlands and Labuan (scrapped) but no expertise to run.

46. 4-day trip to Geneva worth RM303,813 by an Information, Communications and Culture Ministry (ICCM)official to Geneva. Telekom Malaysia spent RM3.3 million. Read in The Star here.


47. Promotion and publicity for Malaysian Emergency Response Services (MERS) 999 for RM3.19mil. Paid but cancelled in the end. So much for a system, because 67% of calls are not answered. 

48. Overpaid but not used clocks, scanners and miscellanuos items for RM7 million.  Busted budget by more than 7,000 times. Read The Star here

49. Performance by k-Pop from Korea for RM1.6 million by then Minister for ICCM, Dato Shaberry Chik. Thought there was no government money involved, asked opposition Ameno Worldhere.

50. Bonuses for 7 losing GLCs. Syarikat parasana Negara gave one and half month bonus despite deficit of more than RM750 million. There are Mimos, KTM, Amanah Raya, Jambatan Kedua, IWK and Cyberview.

51. Dubious tailoring and footwear by Health Ministry worth RM550,000 to RM600,000. Long sleeved shirts and pants worth almost RM200,00 but claimed for more than RM500,000. Baju kurung worth RM2 - 3,000 worth claimed for RM5,000. Read The Star here.

52. Welfare still being given to dead people in kelantan, Sabah and Negeri Sembilan. Read in The Star here. 

53. Double diesel subsidy by LKIM for RM8.14 million. Read The Star here. and here.

54. Performance bond for terminated projects  not recoup it's bond for RM15 million. Read The Star here.

55. Incomplete wewerage project in Negeri Sembilan for RM40 million. Read The Star here.

56. Same event but paid twice, thrice to Majlis Belia Malaysia. Amount to returned RM220,000 already paid to two event companies. Read The Star here.

57. ROS system not running after paid RM120,000. Read The Starhere.

58. Corruption and lackadaisical officers contributed to RM2 billion lost in taxes from one third of illicit cigarettes in the country. Read NST here and here

59. PM can do without that large private jet he is using from Pak Lah's purchase. Sell it and get smaller one. For foreign visit, the rest of his entourage should fly MAS.

60. Hishamuddin's impending politically inspired announcement?

In half an hour, we could accumulate a list of 59. It only shows it is not so difficult to list 100 wastages of government. A quick check with the state level reports could make up the rest.

Address wastages and corruption

Before government cut petrol subsidy which is quickly adjusted by bloody greedy business people, to raises prices, do think about the misery of the low-end rakyat. Government wastages and leakages causes tight budget which also makes life more difficult for rakyat. 

Most of government wastages have corruption behind and it has been on the rise. Conviction and trials on the rise. [Read The Starhere.] It is a a problem and it should be addressed, not defended. To do that, we must not politicised it. MACC needs a lot of support.

Government have taken a government critic, Dato Paul Low as Minister in charge of corruption. He must look beyond just blaming government because government machinery like MACC, Auditor Genral, etc are working hard to deal with errand government servants.

But off-course, there must be action against wrong doers. Read The Star here.

There is also the problem of corporate corruption. Paul Low should address commercial corruption because 70% of corruption involves businesses, and business people.

Without being racist, Paul Low has to addrress the Chiness businessmen to stop giving corruption. Low paid government officers have trouble fighting the temptation of bribes.  They constitute the receivers but without givers, there is no corruption.

Thus far, we like to see Paul Low do more than just blame government like in the past. To form a committee to monitor project more than RM500 million [read here], it only increase bureaucrasy and increase the number of participants in corruption syndicate. Better idea please, Paul.

At least, the Melayu MACC people have plans to introduce a Wall of Shame. They are planning to introduce corporate liability amendment to the Anti Corruption Act 2009. Directors of companies will be liable for corruption by the company and not just the offenders.

Givers beware!

Boring election

This is more exciting than writiing on the UMNO campaign for status quo in an open election. It is really unthinkable and looking idiotic when PM already said he is leaving it to the delegates to choose. He only asked for a clean campaign and electoral process as per NST report here.
An extract below: 

Asked whether he was endorsing certain vice-presidential candidates, Najib said: "Whatever I say is going to be interpreted in different ways.

"So, I think I would just say that what's important is, at the end of the day, for the delegates to choose the best possible line-up for the party, to strengthen the party, and to move the party forward."

Bernama [read here in Pisau.net] reported denial from Zahid. Read extract:

Ahmad Zahid Nafi Wujud Desakan Kekal Tiga Naib Presiden Umno 
KUALA LUMPUR: Naib Presiden Umno Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi menafikan dakwaan wujud desakan terhadap perwakilan untuk mengekalkan tiga naib presiden parti itu pada pemilihan Oktober ini.

Ahmad Zahid yang juga Menteri Dalam Negeri menyifatkan dakwaan itu sebagai spekulasi semata-mata kerana jawatan naib presiden parti memang terbuka untuk ditandingi.

Beliau berkata demikian kepada pemberita di lobi Parlimen hari ini ketika mengulas dakwaan penulis buku dan blogger (Shahbudin Husin) yang disiarkan dalam beberapa portal berita bahawa terdapat kempen dalam parti supaya tiga naib presiden Umno sedia ada, dikekalkan.

The talk is as written by The Star report here yesterday that there is ome truth to the rumbling against directive of status quo, extract below:

Najib was asked to comment on rumblings among Umno members that there was a directive from the party leadership for them to endorse the three incumbent vice-presidents – Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

On Thursday, Federal Territory Umno officials had to issue a denial that there was a directive for the members to vote for the incumbent vice-presidents at the Oct 19 party elections.

FT Umno deputy chief Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin had said that the “suggestion” to retain the three was raised during the gathering on Tuesday by FT Umno chief Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

 Joceline Tan here has more of the story, extract below:

The trio have been campaigning as a team despite denying being a team and there have been calls to maintain the status quo at the VP level.

But laughs aside, the status quo campaign line for the VPs has not gone down well among the Umno delegates, especially those in the urban states.

There have been rumblings among Federal Territory Umno delegates after secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor reportedly asked them to retain the three VPs.

Some felt that as the secretary-general, Tengku Adnan should stay above the fray.

But it has since been claimed it was only a “suggestion” on Tengku Adnan’s part.

There was also an attempt by a state chief to get his division leaders to take a stand to endorse the incumbents. But the move failed after some of the division chiefs refused on the grounds that it would not go down well with their grassroots.

More recently, a macho division warlord from Perak had wanted to issue a statement that his division wants to endorse Zahid, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir and Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad for the VP post.

But he had to abort his plan after receiving phone calls from top leaders telling him not to do that. He toed the line but was quite cheesed-off.

It is quite clear by now that the three incumbents do enjoy the backing of the top leadership.

The three incumbents are all closely linked to Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Zahid and Shafie were in the Youth wing with Najib during his time as Umno Youth leader.

As for Hishammuddin, blood is thicker than water.

Where is his aristocrat breeding for Hishamuddin to go around threatening other aspirants, and resorting to "bribe"?

If we had voted and there is a reason to it, our choice (not in any order) would be Zahid, Hishamuddin and Mukhriz. We are verbally campaign for the acronym ZAHIM. 

No Shafie. Too overzealous with his daily advertisement. Many stories in his Ministry. 

Like Hazmi at 1Azam and Emir Mavani at FGV, suspect Shafie kept a blind eye to his crony stealing poor people's money and not doing any action to clean the crap and perception.

-Another Brick in the Wall