MACC says “aid to dead people” simply a case of Welfare Department staff’s indifference to procedure

Weaknesses in the Welfare Department's system and indifference among its staff resulted in aid being given to some 154 dead people as revealed in the 2012 Auditor General Report, said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

In a statement today, MACC Inspection and Consultancy Division director Datuk Mohd Yusof Akope said an investigation into the findings of the report showed that aid was automatically banked into the recipients' account.

The report revealed that a total of 145 dead people were receiving aid in Sabah, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan and payments were also made to 154 individuals on whom the department had no information on its database.

"The payment is questionable due to the legitimacy of the recipients," said the AG's report.

MACC said the department had not bothered to check on recipients who had not shown up to collect their money for a long time, and the officer in charge of handing out the aid had not checked the identification of those who came to collect the aid and there were no specific guidelines on dealing with a dead person's welfare cards.

"MACC had proposed measures to improve these three issues to the Welfare Department on February 8, 2010. We suggested better systems and procedures on the handing out of welfare aid," Mohd Yusof added.

Meanwhile, the commission’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel (CCPP) said the RM1.33 million loss of police assets, including 44 guns and 29 vehicles, was a "serious act of negligence".

"We take a serious view of these weaknesses that not only could lead to abuse of power and corruption but undermine the government delivery system,” CCPP chairman Datuk Johan Jaafar said in a statement.

He said he was perplexed as to how these irregularities kept occurring despite being highlighted every year in the AG's  report.

“The panel is also baffled by the fact that despite these weaknesses being highlighted in previous reports, they keep being repeated,” he said.

Johan urged the government to form a special committee to look into the issues highlighted in the report.

“The panel also calls on the Chief Secretary of the government to table proposals on improvements to prevent such incidents from recurring," he said.

State governments and government-linked agencies were also called to take immediate action on irregularities stated in the report.

“The panel supports whatever steps need to be taken for further improvements in the civil service so as to plug loopholes to prevent corruption and abuse of power,” he added.

He suggested that the AG's report be published three times annually so that monitoring and supervision of weaknesses can be done more effectively.