THE Ministry of Education (MoE) awarded a meals contract for boarding schools to a tenderer that forged bank documents, according to the Auditor-General’s Report 2018 Series 3.
MoE issued the letter of acceptance without verifying the authenticity of the statements submitted, the auditor-general said. The contract took effect in January last year.
To win the government contract, the tenderer falsified bank statements. Checks with the said bank showed that 359 of the 793 statements were fake.
MoE subsequently replied that the contracts to supply food to two schools, SMK Sultan Ibrahim (1) and SMU (A) Darul Ulum Al-Muhammadiah, were terminated on Aug 14 and 16 respectively.
A report was lodged by the secretary in MoE’s procurement division on Aug 14 at the Putrajaya police headquarters. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had also engaged the ministry to ensure the incident did not repeat.
These were among the weaknesses that the auditor-general found in its audit of MoE’s meals programme for boarding schools between the period of 2016 and 2018.
This was when Padang Terap MP Mahdzir Khalid was education minister. He is now Tenaga Nasional Bhd chairman.
The national auditor also investigated 71 contracts for 42 schools. Those still in effect are worth a cumulative RM3.64 bil.
Other problems include 67 contracts to supply meals were signed off late with delays of up to 446 days, expired food items as well as those without the halal logo were stored and used, and overall poor hygiene in canteens and kitchens. – July 14, 2020
