Penang Welfare Dept remits payments to the deceased

AUDIT REPORT The Penang Department of Social Welfare has spent a total of RM10.55 million on its recipients. However, some of its payments were made to the deceased, the auditor-general reports.

An audit conducted until July last year revealed that overall, the management of the General Assistance Scheme was “less than satisfactory” due to several weaknesses.

“Payments were made to the deceased, withdrawals were made from the deceased’s accounts, distribution used the old rates and were made to terminated recipients.”

“Delays in investigations, approvals and informing the approval of new applications, and cases not being reviewed according to the procedures” were also found in the report.

The department’s role is to eradicate poverty and to restructure the society, says the auditor-general.

One of the measures is to provide financial assistance to those in need through the scheme, which helps targeted groups to alleviate their financial burden until they can be independent, the report states.

The auditor-general says that from January 2010, the new monthly rates of the scheme approved by the Penang government were between RM100 to RM350, with an additional 33.3 percent from funds from the federal government.

The household income eligibility is set at RM720 and from 2010 to July last year, there were 2,866 active recipients in Penang.

For the same period the department has received a total allocation of RM12.23 million and as at July 2012 a total of RM10.55 million (86.2 percent) was spent, the report noted.

The auditor-general recommends that the department coordinate periodical meetings with the Penang National Registration Department and Bank Simpanan Nasional to obtain the latest information about the recipients, and get the Royal Malaysia Police’s cooperation regarding information on the deceased.