The procurement of furniture for the redevelopment of the Battalion Camp 5 General Operations Forces (PGA) of Simpang Renggam, Johor, was found to have been made with forged documents, the Auditor General’s Report today found.
AG Report 2014 Series 1
In the report, the first of a series for 2014, the audit revealed that poor planning of the project as well as non-compliance to guidelines resulted in several weaknesses in this project.
“The proposed redevelopment of the Battalions Camp 5 PGA Simpang Renggam was to be
implemented by Pembinaan BLT (PBLT), and it was approved by the Government. It involved 3 packages with a total cost of RM320.40 million.
“However, allocation to finance maintenance work and procurement of movable furniture for PDRM’s quarters and facilities built by PBLT were not included under the Project Development
and Management Agreement (PDMA) signed between Government and PBLT on 3 December 2010,” it stated.
Aa a result, the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister’s Department approved an allocation amounting to RM13.30 million for 2013 under the Furniture Procurement Project of PBLT, to which the AG has found to be less satisfactory.
Among the weaknesses identified are as follows:
>> weakness in planning caused the procurement of furniture despite the building was only expected to be completed in March 2015;
>> full payments amounted to RM760,150 were made on 24 and 27 December 2013 although furniture purchased was not yet supplied and the payments were supported by forged documents;
>> local bidders were not invited to give their quotations and the procurement was not done through Panel System of Central Contract; and
>> items supplied were unspecified and not in accordance with the specifications
However, the report noted that after the department had reprimanded by Audit, Batalion 5 PGA took immediate action whereby assets purchased were registered and labelled, systematically arranged and kept in a safe and locked place.
“Meanwhile the Home Ministry has set up an Investigation Committee to investigate issues on non-compliance of rules and procedures in furniture procurement,” the report stated.
– The Rocket
