Application for schools maintenance assistance must go through state depts

 

AUDIT REPORT | The channelling and use of maintenance assistance contributions to government-aided schools should go through the state Education Departments or the district education offices and cannot be submitted directly by the schools.

According to the Auditor-General's Report 2020 that was released today, the applications for the year were not made through state Education Departments to speed up the approval process and channelling of the aid, resulting in the government to suffer losses because the cost of procurement exceeded the actual cost.

“An audit of 43 samples found that all applications for maintenance assistance contributions submitted by schools did not go through state Education Departments and the technical evaluation process was not carried out by these departments.

“The technical assessment and market study were not done, resulting in a price difference of RM1.25 million between the procurement price and the current price estimate," stated the report.

The report also revealed that a total of RM130,000 was paid for work that was not carried out at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Ladang Kampung Baru, RM390,000 scope of work that was not approved at three government-aided schools and a total of RM410,000 for work that did not meet specifications at the two of these schools.

The report also recommended that the Ministry of Education (MOE) checks the applications thoroughly to ensure that only the scope of maintenance work allowed in the guidelines is given approval, as well as for special approval by the MOE's Asset Management Division.

Other recommendations include improving existing guidelines and understanding of officers involved and stakeholders to ensure a more orderly management of the contributions to facilitate monitoring, as well as to get the best value.

- Bernama