KHAIRY SHOCKER – SPORTS MINISTRY FOUND TO BE FULL OF CORRUPTION, RANKED NO. 8 OUT OF 25 MOST GRAFT-RIDDLED MINISTRIES: SYED SADDIQ SACKS 9 BOARD MEMBERS, TO REPLACE WITH ‘NON-POLITICIANS’

KUALA LUMPUR – Nine members of the boards of directors of agencies under the youth and sports ministry have been sacked, says its minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

He said they included chairmen and directors.

Those removed were from the Institute for Youth Research Malaysia (IYRES), National Sports Institute of Malaysia, Subang Golf Corporation and Stadium Corporation of Malaysia.

“I thank them for their services,” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby today.

Syed Saddiq said the nine were political appointees who held leadership positions in Umno Youth or were divisional chiefs.

“They will be replaced by non-politicians,” he added.

The sacking of the nine comes days after the heads of five public universities had their services terminated by the education ministry in the Pakatan Harapan government’s ongoing exercise to replace political appointees from the previous administration. – FMT

KBS RIDDLED WITH CORRUPTION

KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) is in the top 10 of ministries riddled with corrupt practices and the ministry is now in the process of conducting investigations.

In saying this, deputy Youth and Sports minister Steven Sim said KBS was at number 8 out of 25 ministries in which corruption was a big problem, citing weaknesses in the procurement and payment processes.

The number 8 ranking was based on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) Public Service Corruption Ranking (PSCR) released in 2016.

KBS was also among the ministries that received the lowest allocation in the federal budget.

“All of these problems and leakages have resulted in the inability to maximise the limited resources to develop youth and sports,” he said.

Touching on the awarding of projects in KBS, Sim said a huge number of the ministry’s contracts were not awarded with open tender, but through direct negotiation.

This, he said was based on what initial investigations uncovered.

Some of the contracts include consultation services as well as infrastructure development, he told press members at the Parliament lobby, here, today.

“Many SEA Games projects were done without open tender,” Sim said, however did not reveal the actual cost involved.

From a total of RM777.14 million in projects between 2016 and 2018, 46 percent or RM357.80 million were implemented without open tender but awarded via direct negotiation or limited tender, according to Sim.

“Based on observation at KBS, we find there are many rooms for improvement at the management and administration level that needs to be carried out.

“After a KBS officer was detained by the MACC involving misappropriation of RM100 million in 2016, there has been no improvements carried out,” Sim said.

In 2017, he said procurements made without open tender was at RM264.2 million while those done via open tender totalled RM173.7 million.

Immediate action will be taken, he informed, in line with the aspirations of the new government to fight corruption.

Sim remarked that investigation into these contracts which were not done via open tender was not an act of revenge against the previous leadership.

It is learnt that the ministry has met with MACC officers on the issue of tenders being awarded via direct negotiation and have been advised to conduct a forensic audit.

– NST