PAC proposes review on cooking oil monitoring system and mechanism

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommends that the stakeholders carry out a review on the cooking oil monitoring system and mechanism so that it can be more effective to avoid shortages of supply.
Its chairman, Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin, noted that integrated monitoring should be carried out in collaboration with ministries, departments, government agencies and non-governmental organisations.
"This is to avoid the shortage of supply of cooking oil in the local market, thus causing the government to bear big amounts of subsidies," he said.
He said this in a statement after presenting the PAC report at the Dewan Rakyat today on the management of the Cooking Oil Stabilisation Scheme (COSS) under the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry (KPPK).
According to the 2015 Auditor-General's Report (Series 2) as reported by the media, among others, temporary packaging quotas of cooking oil were given to companies without complying with standard operating procedures (SOP) which resulted in an excess in the maximum quota limit of between 64 and 464 metric tonnes per month as of April 2016, that has caused the government to pay an extra RM2.92 million in subsidies.
PAC also recommended that in the future, the cooking oil quota should be determined and only given to qualified entrepreneurs with their own factory and have a good track record, he said.
Following the meeting on Dec 8, 2016, PAC was also of the view that the government's move that the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) take over the management of cooking oil subsidies from KPPK was appropriate as cooking oil was listed as a consumer good and under the purview of KPDNKK. — Bernama