Money that was appropriated for food to feed malnourished children was instead spent on buying nasi lemak, kuih and teh tarik to be served at meetings by three district health offices.
Out of RM923,000 allocated to feed poor rural children, RM87,851 was misspent by the Jerantut, Gua Musang and Kota Kinabalu health offices.
The abuse of funds was one of the highlights of the 2013 Auditor-General’s Report, which listed 283 issues related to wastage of funds, poor revenue and asset management, negligence, and weak planning and monitoring of projects.
The report also showed that the funds were misused by the three health offices to buy curtains, hampers for cooking programmes, and replica models of food items such as biscuits, nasi goreng, and nasi lemak. Among them, the three district offices also used the money to buy souvenirs, t-shirts for a choir group, and to pay for the rental off outdoor canopies for a family day.
Discrepancies were also found between the prices of food items in the tender documents and invoices.
The Health Ministry set up an internal investigation committee on February 27 to investigate and reprimand the officers involved.
Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam described the abuse involving hungry children as a serious crime that should be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
“This is corruption no matter how you cut the cake, because money meant for hungry children was used to feed those who were supposed to take care of them,” said Nayagam who has worked with children’s organisations for the past 33 years.
Story: The Star Online
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