KUALA LUMPUR: The Communications and Multimedia Ministry will be lodging a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on issues raised on the management of funds by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
Its minister Gobind Singh Deo (pix) said he viewed seriously the findings in the Auditor-General’s Report 2018 Series 1, which was released yesterday, concerning the matter.
According to him, after the Pakatan Harapan coalition came into power in the country following the 14th general election in May last year, the ministry had stopped the practice of appointing special officers for the minister and deputy minister using MCMC funds.
“All appointments of special officers currently follow approved government appointment warrants. As such, the problem (raised in the report) is not continuing.
“The MCMC has also stopped carrying out corporate social responsibility programmes for the Minister and the allocation for the purpose has been transferred for operating expenditure of the MCMC,” he said in a statement here today.
Series 1 report stated that MCMC Provident Fund spending was not managed efficiently and effectively, in particular relating to expenses under the direction of previous minister (under the Barisan Nasional government).
This included, expenditure on MCMC’s 12 CSR programmes amounting to RM12.81 million under the minister’s directive.
Among them were the purchase of 50,000 manuscript books on former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, ‘Predictive Analytics on the Sungai Besar by-election’, and the Hulu Terengganu Parliamentary Open House, according to the report which audited the commission’s financial statements for the years ending Dec 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The report also highlighted the appointment of nine special officers to the minister and deputy minister from 2016 to June 2018.
Meanwhile, Gobind said the ministry also noted the audit reviews related to the management of the Film in Malaysia Incentive (Fimi) under the management of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas).
He said Finas was taking administrative action to ensure that the same problem did not recur in the future.
He said this included increasing promotions especially at the local level to raise awareness on Fimi.
“(Finas will also) improve the structure of the application and rebate payments to facilitate the dealings,“ he said. — Bernama
