Audit report finds abysmal outcome for RM258m spent on skills training for B40

A total of RM258.29 million allocated by the federal government to various agencies between 2016 and 2018 to help organise skills training for the B40 community resulted in poor outcomes as only a third of the targeted participants benefitted from the programmes.

According to the Auditor-General's Report 2018 (Series 3) tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today, only 38.5 percent of the targeted 100,000 participants benefitted from the programme, referred to as "Program Peningkatan Kapasiti dan Kapabiliti Kumpulan Khusus".

Among the problems include poor management of allocation, the appointment of unsuitable entities to carry out the training programmes and poor tracking to determine whether the training programmes were held in the first place.

The programmes were intended to help participants secure jobs and increase their household income from between RM1,200 and RM1,500 or more.

The entities provided funding from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) included the Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera, the New Affirmative Action Movement (Naam) Foundation, the Malay Chamber Of Commerce of Malaysia (DPMM), Mahasiswa Turun Parlimen (Mantap), the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa), the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK), the Economic Planning Unit for Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak, the Federal Territories Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry.

In a scaffolding training programme contracted by the Sabah Economic Planning Unit from December 4, 2017, to January 31, 2018, to a company with registration number 0872690V, the audit report found that the firm had made a claim 836.6 percent higher than the actual cost.

"The audit review found that '0872690V' had made a claim of RM397,500 to the Sabah Economic Planning Unit for the scaffolding level 1 programme," it said.

However, the audit report said the company did not conduct the training programme but instead contracted it to a third party - Akademi Binaan Malaysia (ABM) Sabah which only billed "0872690V" RM47,515.

"It was found that '0872690V' made a claim 836.6 percent higher than the cost charged by ABM Sabah which conducted the programme," said the report.

As for the "I Am Usahawan" (Iamu) training programmes conducted by the DPMM, the audit report found that its programmes were not suitable for the objective of the allocation.

Furthermore, the audit report found that programmes were for DPMM's own members.

 At the end of November 2018, DPMM had spent RM4.79 million of the allocation provided through Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (Teraju).

DPMM transferred allocation despite freeze order

It added DPMM had also transferred RM3.5 million to its main account in July 2018 purportedly for claims for a programme for which the agreement was not finalised.

The audit report said Teraju had ordered for a freeze on transactions related to the Iamu programme on Nov 7, 2018, due to complaints of misappropriation after which an auditor was appointed.

The report said despite this, DPMM continued to transfer another RM250,000 from the allocation to its main account, 19 days after the freeze notice.

In the case of the Naam Foundation, the auditor-general's report concluded that it did not have the experience or capacity to conduct such training programmes.

It pointed out one of the firms Naam Foundation contracted to run a training programme was only registered as a company three days prior to it signing the agreement worth RM730,000.

It also concluded that another cattle training programme contracted by the Naam Foundation costing RM4 million was also not suitable for the B40 participants as such a project would require a large amount of capital.

Furthermore, it said the programme which ran for 12 weeks was supposedly for 1,013 participants but a site visit to the training area found it could only accommodate 200 people.

"The audit could not verify the report (on the training) provided as there was no registration form of the participants, their attendance, their allowance payment record or a list of trainers," it said.

The audit report added that it could not verify whether RM1.33 million in allowances for three of Naam's contracted training programmes were ever paid out to participants.

The Youth and Sports Ministry had acted as the coordinating agency in channelling funds from the EPU to Naam. - Mkini