SANDAKAN: Educators, especially principals and school heads, should pay serious attention to abuse of power, especially in giving school contracts to family members.
Sabah Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director S. Karunanithy said the act of giving contracts to family members was a serious offence involving a principal or head of school.
“MACC often receives many complaints about this offence, although it is clear that that school heads and principals cannot use their position to receive bribes, including giving contracts to family members’ companies.
This year alone, there were six cases in Sabah which have been charged in court and MACC is constantly holding awareness programmes to prevent this offence from recurring,” he told reporters after giving a talk at a programme by the Sabah Education Department, Sandakan Zone, here today.
Karunanithy also advised principals and headmasters to remove the names of family companies listed for consideration in obtaining contracts at their respective schools.
He added that the removal of these companies should be reflected in the minutes of the meeting for the contract awarding process as a company that has been removed from the list of contract applicants.
Sabah Education director Dr Mistirine Radin said the programme was held early every year to share school management information and they frequently invited MACC officials to give briefings.
“We (the Sabah Education Department) not only want to make education transparent to students, but we also want to educate teachers, principals and heads of schools and district education officials so that such offences involving teachers are not repeated,” he added. - Bernama
