The existing funds such as Penjana, Mitra, Marii and so on are to help people who were affected by the economic downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to further improve their skills and potential.
A large number of people were affected and burdened by job loss, unemployment and business woes, resulting in some having to shut down due to the economy not growing as usual.
Therefore, the government introduced grants, loans, moratorium, skills training and special financial assistance with the aim to help the people to survive.
But what has happened? Individuals, companies and organisations had taken the opportunity to profit from the sufferings of the affected people.
They took advantage by making false claims for personal wealth, using funds provided by the Government.
This is the attitude of economic opportunists on a small and medium scale. The value of integrity has faded and greed has become a culture.
As a result, workers who were thrown out, graduates who were unemployed, traders who were forced to close their businesses and those who should have received the benefits and assistance were left out.
This is one form of leakage that the Government must rectify. There is no use for any fancy policies when the implementation is a failure. There are just too many loopholes that can create the room and opportunity for abuse to happen. Among them are:
1. Weaknesses in the review process of the authenticity of information submitted by applicants (individuals, companies, organisations) have resulted in several companies owned by the same persons making multiple claims.
2. The issue of emergency (during the pandemic) was used as an excuse to not perform due diligence on the applicant. If it is too rigid, it would be blamed on bureaucracy.
3. There were no clear mechanisms to monitor the programmes or activities that were supposed to be carried out in order to ensure that they were actually implemented with the right number of participants. The agency only depended on the program / activity report submitted by the applicant.
4. There were no clear rules and laws to take action against applicants such as blacklisting them, instituting civil suits and reclaiming unspent funds.
The agencies to which these funds were channelled should be constantly monitored. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is not about how many have received aid / funds or what percentage of aid / funds (financial) have been channelled, or how many programmes /activities have been conducted. All these KPIs are purely quantitative in nature.
What should be measured is the impact or outcome of the activity / program. Only then, the intention to reduce unemployment, to reduce the number of problematic businesses and the development of potential and skills of the working class and so on can be achieved.
MACC sees the issue of misappropriation and leakages of funds / aid of this kind as a serious and important issue. To date, the collaboration between MACC and government agencies and ministries involving special operations throughout 2022 have resulted in a total of 133 individuals, consisting of company owners and directors, arrested. More than a hundred companies have been investigated for misappropriation of funds estimated to be around RM194 million. As of today, a total of 34 company owners / directors have been charged in court for the offense of submitting false claims.
In 2023, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission will focus on the issue of leakages and misappropriations of funds in the human resource sector, welfare, automotive, education and higher education, agriculture, plantation and other sectors.
** Datuk Seri Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya is Deputy Chief Commissioner (Operations) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
** ** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.
